


The White Eye of Sorrowness

by HobgoblinE



Category: Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, Naruto
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Canon, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Friendship, Long Shot, Manga & Anime, Not Beta Read, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:33:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 29,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26442769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HobgoblinE/pseuds/HobgoblinE
Summary: Toshiro grows up with his abusive mother, always being told to hide his eyes with his hair. One day he meets a stranger called Shoji in his village who reveals to him that he has a Byakugan, which must mean his father is from the Hyuuga clan. His world turns around by a sudden attack on his village and he has to leave with Shoji, as people will try to hunt him for his eyes. The story will then depict his adevntures, which will overlap with the events in Naruto, his primary goal being to defeat the 7 deadly sins. Updated every week on Sunday.
Kudos: 5





	1. The Massacre

"Don't look at me with those eyes!"-Kiyomi screamed at her kid as she slapped him, then picked up her bottle again and took a sip out of it. The shock from the hit was so severe Toshiro felt on the floor, held his tears and gently started touching the part of his face that just got slapped. 

"Didn't I tell you already to cover them with your hair? How many times should I repeat myself?"-she shouted at him in a mean tone, tipsy but not quite enough to be fully drunk. She took a final sip out of it, looked through the hole to see if it's empty and tossed it on the ground in front of Toshiro. 

"Go throw it away. I don't want to see you right now."

Her child picked it up obediently and went out. He started walking down the street, his bangs covering his eyes entirely while his head was titled downwards, no longer holding back his tears, he had went into his melancholic emotional state just as usual. He was used to being treated like that and he didn't really think much of it. Toshiro then turned around the corner where the trash was, threw it sideways without turning around.

"Watch out kid."-said a man with a sturdy voice, at the same moment he lifted his left hand and grabbed the bottle mid air. 

"You would've hit me if I wasn't careful."

Toshiro turned around facing him and pointed with his finger at the spilled over trash bin next to the man. "I was aiming at that..."-he responded.

The man looked at his hand again and realised the bottle's trajectory was around 1 cm in front of his nose- it wouldn't have hit him. 

"How even?"-he thought. "How are you even able to see through that hair of yours, kid?"-he asked while he grabbed his trident that was laying next to him, spun it around effortlessly and pointed with it at the kid.

Toshiro gasped and took one step backwards, but the man was too fast, he touched his hair with the sharp trident and precisely moved it sideways to reveal his eyes. The kid quickly let out a whimper and stepped back, but stumbled on a rock and fell down. 

"Would you look at that!"-the man said with a rather excited voice, stood up and went over to the kid and then proposed his hand to help him get up. Instead the kid turned around and got up himself. 

"Now it all makes, I could only see it for a second, but I am sure I saw it, you have the Byakugan, kid. I can't mistake those veins, it was activated at that too!"

"It's called... a byakugan?"-the kid asked curiously, he was thirsty to perhaps find out why his mom hated them. 

"Yes, it's a dojutsu from a noble clan in Konoha named Hyuuga if I am not mistaken. It's a sought out kekkei genkai, but only a few have been able to get their hands on it outside of the clan."-he said while he pulled out an old textbook from his bag and started going through the pages. 

"Kekkei... genkai?"

"Aha, here it is!"-the man exclaimed and handed over the book. "You know how to read, right?"

"Yes, an old lady taught me..."-the kid replied as he grabbed the textbook and looked at the text. The page was number 67 and the title of it with capital letters was "KEKKEI GENKAI". 

"A kekkei genkai is a specific physical trait or ability that a person receives when they are born, it can only be naturally acquired if one of your ancestors had it. But you can transplant a kekkei genkai too, like your eyes!"-the man kneeled down and moved away the child's hair with his hand and closely looked at them again. There was no doubt, the big lavender eyes with no pupils were there, the kid could even activate it so he can look around without even showing his eyes. He then looked at his forehead and saw, that there was no mark. 

"If you flip the book over to page 73 you can read more about the Byakugan."

The kid did as he was told, he flipped over the pages and started reading about the eye. On the text it was written: *due to how many ninjas have tried to obtain the Byakugan throughout history, the Hyuuga clan started to brand their side branch members with it, so that the Byakugan is destroyed when it's removed from the owner's body or he is killed.*

"I don't know who you are, but I have a feeling you didn't know about your own clan now did you?"-the man raised a brow and took the textbook from the kid's hands. 

Toshiro stayed silent, he couldn't even say who his father is, his mom never told him his name, she only ever hit her child for showing his eyes, that 'reminded her of his father'. 

"Those are powerful eyes though, there's a reason why so many, including the hidden village in our nation, tried to get their hands on it. You have probably experienced it's effects already, but you can see 360°, right? You can see through objects and see from far away, but only when activated."-the man then scratched his newly shaved bear that made him look like he is homeless, it didn't help that his clothes were dirty and baggy as well. He kneeled down and put his hands on Toshiro's arms and said- "Many will want your eyes, especially since you don't have the mark, it's dangerous for you to stay here alone."

The child lifted his head and saw the man smiling at him, it was friendly and welcoming, something he hasn't seen a lot during his life. 

"Well, it's time for me to go now, I have something to take care of, I will come later today, it's a promise."-the man stood up and made a fist, but the pinky finger was raised. "Do you know how to do this?"

Toshiro looked at his hand, made a fist and raised his pinky finger. "That's it! Now we just grip them together."

The man grabbed Toshiro's pinky with his and said cheerfully "It's a pinky promise now!"-and smiled brightly.

"Byeee-"-the man said and waved goodbye, then turned around and shouted "Ah, I almost forgot. My name is Shoji!"

Toshiro watched as the man picked up his trident and placed it on his back, then disappeared. He then went back to his house, where he found his mom sitting on the chair asleep with 2 empty bottles on the table. That was a normal occurance for her when she got drunk, at least during that time he could get some peace and quiet. He went to his room and went to sleep on his uncomfortable bed, even though it was still afternoon. He slept with his everyday clothes, which were now dirty and torn in some pieces, he didn't have any others to wear. Kiyomi was a doctor, but most villagers didn't have any health problems and she ran out of business. When someone got injured they would opt to treat it themselves than go to her, since most found her very rude and unbearable. 

From a young age she had problems with alcochol, now that she had nothing else to do her daily activities degraded to just that. She was still young and pretty, just 27 years old, but due to her alcocholic appearance and messy hair, most stopped from considering her for a wife, even those from other villagers who didn't know about her personality. It didn't help that she had a bastard son too, which repelled most men from marrying her. 

After around 3 hours Toshiro woke up from painful screams and panically stood up, then coughed from ashes. He looked around and quickly realised that the house was on fire, alongside the entire village. When he stormed out he started panickally running and screaming for help, but there was no one. He ran to the entrance to the village and saw around 15 men in armour, armed with swords and bows. On the ground there were dozens of bodies, old people and children- they were all dead. 

"You are still holding out, how didn't you die from blood lost already?"-a soldier said as he kicked Hayato(the head of the village), who was on the ground gripping the soldier's leg.

"What a fool, you knew you had no chance against us and yet you still tried to fight us, die!"-he shouted and cut his hand with his sword and then stabbed him in the neck, killing him. 

"What to do now, commander? We didn't find the ring as we were instructed to."-one of the archers asked. 

"It's obviously not here anymore, just let the village burn, it's of no use to us."

"Sir! There is a survivor there!"-one of the soldiers shouted and pointed at Toshiro, who froze in place from fear. The commander then turned around to see him and immediately disappeared from Toshiro's sight. 

"Behind!"-Toshiro saw him and turned around.

"This is it, I can see differently again. I have it activated."-he thought again and took a step backwards while gulping, trembling the whole time. 

The man took out his sword and slashed, but before he could do that a body threw itself in front of him. 

"MOM!"-Toshiro screamed. His mom was standing it front of him, the sword had pierced her shoulder. 

"Stupid kid, why didn't you run away?"-she said barely being able to get the words out of her mouth and then started coughing blood. 

"Dumb bitch."-the commander sighed and pulled out his sword from her, she fell down to the ground spilling even more blood, while Toshiro fell on his knees and put his hands on her crying.

"Just when you think you are done another one jumps in, pathetic."-he said quite annoyed, and readied his sword to yet again cut Toshiro. 

"What's this?!"-Toshiro thought, as he saw from his near 360° vision an object flying towards him. It was the trident!

It landed exactly between Toshiro and the commander, then Shoji appeared out of thin air, his right hand holding the trident. The commander proceeded with his attack but Shoji parried it with his left hand, then pulled out a kunai from his pocket with his right one and stabbed him in the throat.

"Sorry for being late!"-he told Toshiro as he pulled out the kunai and the man dropped dead on the ground, then turned around and smiled. Shoji kneeled down and tapped his soldiers with his hands just like earlier today. "It will be ok now, I promise. Just wait for a moment."

He then quickly picked the trident which was pinned to the ground, got in front of Toshiro and started spinning it to deflect the arrows coming in their direction. 

"Take cover somewhere!"-he shouted and started sprinting towards the enemy dodging all the arrows, then threw the trident with great force, which hit one of the soldiers. 

The trident pushed them backwards, but before he could hit the ground Shoji appeared above him, his right hand gripping the trident, which he then pulled out and landed between two soldiers. 

Toshiro was looking at him from the street with his byakugan. He then checked his mother and saw that her heart had stopped beating. She was dead. Even though she was always abusive to him, she was still his mother, even though he didn't have a single memory of her being nice to him, he still cried out of sorrow. He was a kind heart hearted kid, similarly to his dad, which was unknown to him. When Toshiro focused again on Shoji, he saw the man dancing between the enemy's attacks, dodging and cutting their necks. Shoji then threw his trident again, this time between 2 archers. Before it could land he appeared yet again out of nowhere mid air holding it, turned around and slashed the 2 archers from behind.

Not long after the battle had ended, everyone was dead except 2 soldiers, which he planned to interrogate. 

"Speak! Who is your leader?"-he shouted aggresively at them. They both started sweating and shook their heads in disapproval. 

"Tell me!"-he screamed again and stabbed one of the soldiers, not enough to kill him, just to make him feel pain. 

"We can't! We will die!"-the other one cried out loud. "We have a seal on our tougues!"

"If you don't tell me, then we will play a game. Every time I ask you a question and you don't answer, I will chopp off one finger until you run out of them. Then we will continue with the toes, then the ears, then the nose, the private parts and then finally I will burn you alive in one of the buildings which are on fire. It's better to tell me and die instead of that, right?"-Shoji said cheerfully with his bright smile, but this time it was frightening to the soldiers. They started sweating and trembling with fear, gulping and barely breathing. 

"You don't understand we- AAAAGHH?!"-the soldier started explaining to him but then got cut off by Shoji cutting his pinky. 

"Oh, I am sorry, I forgot to say the game started. My last sentence was a question too."-his smile became even bigger. "Now if you don't mind, what is his name?"

"Oh god please, I will tell you! He is one of the deadly sins-Lust... AAAAGH!"- the man answered and then started suffocating, alongside the other soldier. 

"Only one of them answered but the other's seal activated as well, it probably operates on the basis that they will all die if one of them betrays them."-Shoji thought as he watched the 2 soldiers suffocating to death. 

"The 7 deadly sins, just as I thought."- he sighed and put his trident on his back. He then walked over to Toshiro to find him still saddened over the loss of his mother.

"Let's have a proper burial..."-Shoji told Toshiro, kneeled down and brushed over his hair to see his veins bulged-the Byakugan was activated.

They put out the fire until the sun started setting down, but the houses were already destroyed. Then they buried everyone in the village with the help of Shoji's earth style and paid their respects.

"Let's go kid, it's getting dark. You can no longer stay here. We'll go to my camp for the night, then I will have to send a message to the hidden cloud village."-Shoji told Toshirou and they both started walking towards the horizon, where the sun was setting. Toshirou then grabbed Shoji's hand, which surprised him in a good way and then smiled at him brightly like the sun.


	2. Shoji vs The Deadly Sin!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Toshiro undergoes 2 months of training while Shoji continues his mission. His training ends abruptly after a Deadly Sin appears! How will this confrantation end?

After the massacre Toshiro and Shoji set up camp near another city, then started talking about themselves. 

"Ok, let's talk about something. Do you mind sharing something about yourself?"-asked Shoji as he was sitting down next to the child in front of the camp fire. 

"My name is Toshiro and... I come from Silverdust village..."-he explained quietly with a timid voice, but then stopped and awkward silence broke out. 

"Alright. My name is Shoji, I am an ex-teacher in the Hidden Cloud Village! But recently I have given up on it, right now I am assigned on a long term mission. I also have a fiancée, she is in the Cloud village too. Maybe one day I can go back there with her and live together."-Shoji said with his smile but calmly, looking at the stars. 

"Long mission?"

"Yes. I am currently investigating an organisation alongside other Jonin, the evidences of one branch of it lead me to your village, unfortunately I was right. They usually stay low, but for some reason this one has gone on a rampage around the country, looting citizen villages. The Cloud sent patrols of ninjas to them, but some of them have not reached their locations yet, but soon everyone should be protected."-Shoji then looked at his watch, stood up and put out the fire.

"Let's go to sleep, it's getting late."

The night was hard for Toshiro, he couldn't go to sleep for hours, mostly just thinking about the massacre. He must have reimagined that scene a hundred of times until he finally fell asleep. The next day Toshiro woke up and looked around, but didn't see Shoji, so he went outside and saw him coming from the hill. 

"Heyy!! Toshiroo! Look what I found!"-Shoji started shouting and waving his hand-excited while walking impatiently towards the camp. 

"Here, I found some old textbooks from my teaching days, maybe we can train together!"-Shoji hurriedly arrived and handed the 2 old books to the kid, on them it was written "Shinobi's first steps" and "History of the Hidden Villages". 

"The first one is really important, it contains all kinds of beginner exercises, the second one is kind of useless but we were forced to teach it to the kids."

"Thank you... but I don't want them."-Toshiro replied and handed them back.

"This is a problem."-Shoji thought. His plan was to give him exercises during his missions so he can protect himself, but now that was out of the window. 

"I am sorry Toshiro, but I don't think we have a choice. The world is a tough place, I can't protect you forever. People will... people are merciless. Your eyes are something valuable, I don't want you to suffer because of them."-Shoji confronted the child, kneeled down and put his hands on his shoulders, this time with a serious face and not his usual cheerful smile. 

Toshiro looked at the books again, picked them and started tearing a bit. "I will try my best!"-he shouted, something strange for him. 

"It's a pinky promise then!"-Shoji smiled and made the pinky sign. Toshiro thought about it for a second but didn't protest any further and put the books under his armpit and accepted the pinky promise with his right hand. 

Throughout the following month the returning teacher gave his student lessons early in the morning and left off after that, usually returning late at night or missing for days. 

Toshiro struggled to grasp the concept of molding chakra at first, partly because he didn't try as much, but later on it became evident he wasn't a normal child. He had a good sense of chakra control and hand seals, but his physical strength wasn't developed. 

Shoji gave him a haircut, but even he admitted he did a poor job. They kept it long but cut the bangs. He bought Toshiro new clothes as well and cooked for him from time to time but mostly left him food to cook by himself. 

"Look what I found! It's a training plushie human with 'chakra points' inside of it, they are fake tho. The Hyuuga clan are famous for their gentle fist taijutsu, by gathering chakra in your fingers you can shut the opponent's chakra pathway system."-explained Shoji enthusiastically. 

"I have read about it..."-answered the young student and closed his eyes. 

"Byakugan!"-thought Toshiro with a confident strong voice that he could rarely let out, opened his eyes and popped his veins out. 

"Great! You can do it at will now."-the teacher encouraged him but also thought to himself, that this isn't normal. In the textbooks and scrolls that have gathered greater intel on the Byakugan it was stated, that most Hyuugas train hard for years in specific intense exercises to awaken it, something Toshiro had clearly not done, instead he had awakened it from sheer stress/trauma. Shoji himself wasn't sure if that's something bad or that it shows Toshiro's talent. One thing was for sure though, he was a quick learner. 

"Alright! Focus your chakra in your fingers and strike quickly at the fake body."

Toshiro did as he was told, which then led to Shoji saying "Good. Now do it quicker, you have to be fast. Also do the daily exercises as usual. I will be leaving early now, I have something important to take care of."-Shoji then picked up his trident and put it on his back, put his hands in the pockets of his old brown coat, which looked sort of dirty and sewn at some places. 

Toshiro trained for days on end, he also liked to go deep in thoughts about his future, even tho he wasn't that talkative and rather shy, he always thought about something. This habit would end up being beneficial during battles, his quick thought process allowed him to think of strategies and openings in the nick of time. 

In the 2nd month he continued practicing his taijutsu and physical strength/agility. During the end of the month Shoji sat down with his pupil early in the morning to give him a new lesson. 

"This time it's not something you can find in the books. It's about my trident."-Shoji proceeded to pull it out and spin it around effortlessly. "You have probably realised this already but I am using a space-time ninjutsu."

"I have read about one... I think one of the Hokages was famous for it."-explained Toshiro while carefully looking at the trident.

"That's correct! I wanted to duplicate the ninjutsu but information about it was hard to stumble upon, let alone use it. That's why I created my own, if you look closely at the shaft of my trident there is a formula, which is used as my beacon for teleportation. On my palms I have a seal which helps me travel to the formula's location. Because the formula goes throughout the entire shaft I can choose where to grab it!"-Shoji explained proudly of his creation. 

"Amazing..."-was all that Toshiro could answer. 

"The only problem is that I can't apply the formula with a single touch like the Hokage, instead I have to write it down with blood and it takes a lot of time... and blood. But I can apply the hand seals quite easily. Come here, I will show you how."-Shoji then looked at Toshiro's hand from different angles and then spitted on it. 

"Uh...?"-Toshiro thought disgusted. Then looked as the spit formed into what looked like 2 crescents looking at opposite ways. 

"Ok now the second one."

Toshiro looked hesitantly at it but eventually allowed him to spit on it as well. The crescents had a weird blue colour but they quickly disappeared afterwards. The teacher then explained how to activate it, which simply took imagination. Toshiro had a hard time grasping the concept but eventually managed to enter the dimensional void, when he teleported to the trident he could barely grab it while he was in the air, his body being turned around, facing the ground. Toshiro managed to grip onto the trident but still hit his head on the not sharp back part of the trident, since the 3 sharp tines were stucked in the ground. 

"Are you okay? That was amazing! I didn't expect you to do it so quickly."-Shoji teleported to the trident and examined Toshiro's head for any injuries. 

"I am ok."-Toshiro reassured him and stood up looking at his hand, where the left crescent was now glowing and itching a bit. 

"Don't worry, it's normal. My seal glows up too when activated. I am leaving the trident here today so you can train with it."

"What if you need it?"

"Then I will just teleport it to myself."-Shoji's right crescent then glowed and the trident appeared in his hand. "See?"-he then chuckled and handed it to his student. 

The next 3 days Shoji didn't come back, but Toshiro still trained hard the whole time. Today was a rather normal day, but Toshiro felt extra exhausted and fatigued from all the training. When he woke up he didn't see the trident, Shoji must have teleported it to himself. The 10 year old decided to practice his gentle fist. He trained hard until he heard his stomach growling, for he lit up a fire and started cooking the fish he had caught yesterday. 

"My majesty, is that boy the target?"-asked a scout soldier observing from the hill next to Toshiro's camp. 

"Yes, that must be him. If I get him I can blackmail that cloud ninja."-responded a the man standing next to him. He was wearing an expensive purple attire, pure golden rings with gemstones on them, black shoes pointing upwards and a big alfanje sword with a golden grip. He stroked his moustache in anticipation and ordered the scout to come with him.

"I am sorry... but I don't think we should do this. He is... he is just a kid-"-the scout tried to reason his position but quickly got cut off. 

"Are you questioning my orders?"-the man in purple raised an eyebrow and looked ferociously at him.

"No, sir! I just wanted you to rethink our possibilities-"-the scout tried to explain but quickly got slashed. 

"I don't need you anymore, failure. From all the valuable soldiers I had you were the only one lucky enough to survive. And for what? To try and order me around. Each toad should know their pond."-he said with a rather disgusted tone and looked down on his target, shivering in anticipation. He then made his way down as carefully and silently as he could, while Toshiro was peacefully cooking his fish. 

"I wonder if it's done already? Byakugan!"-the kid thought and activated his dojutsu to look at the inside of the fish. But then noticed something coming close to him, around 10m away from him(15m being his limit), turned around and saw the man coming confidently at him. 

"Oh? So you noticed me? How troublesome. I wanted to just knock you out without resistance."

Toshiro quickly stood up and suddenly froze in fear, as he recognised the armour vest- it was the same as those soldiers during the Silverdust Massacre. His fear quickly disappeared as he got possessed by anger, held tight his fist until it started to hurt. 

"Who are you!?"-shouted Toshiro. 

"I know what you are thinking already, it's true. I am the leader of the bandits who killed your village. See, I am kind of busy, so it would be for the best if yo-"-the man tried to convince Toshiro to give up but was interrupted by him charging at him while screaming furiously. 

The Hyuuga jumped in and tried to hit his head, but he dodged by moving slightly to the left and proceeded to grip the handle of his sword. Toshiro saw it with his byakugan and upon landing pulled out the kunai given to him by Shoji, even though he didn't have much time to practice with it. The leader of the bandits pulled out his sword and clashed it with the kid's kunai, easily overpowering him. Toshiro had already predicted that and had stepped backwards with his left foot and just stepped back with his right one as well. 

His opponent motioned his hand to slash upwards. He saw this as an opening and threw the kunai at his face, but before it could hit him the swordsman was able to hit it, this way deflecting it entirely. But by focusing on the kunai he didn't realise Toshiro had stopped going backwards and instead charged head on. While the enemy's sword was still upwards(from the previous deflection of the kunai) he lowered his back so it wouldn't hit him in time. 

"This is it! Remember the training!"-thought Toshiro and prepared his fingers to strike at the opponent's chakra pathway system around his gut. But before he could reach him the man kicked him with his right leg, which repelled him a bit from the swordsman. 

"You turned out to be more of a problem than I thought. So young... yet so tactful. Truly magnificent."-he monolouged himself and then picked the kid up by his throat with his left hand. 

"Those eyes... they are not normal, are they?"

"I can't breathe, I have to do something!"-thought Toshiro while struggling for air and then it clicked. He readied his fingers and struck at the chakra points in the opponent's hand. After that his muscles went numb and dropped the kid, who immediately started breathing desperately for hair. 

"Fuck! What did you do to me? Little piece of shit!"-the leader ranted pissed off and readied his sword to strike at Toshiro, who was still on the ground begging for hair. 

"The trident! It's coming!"-Toshiro thought as he saw it flying towards him. 

"My senses! Something's coming."-thought the supreme commander of his forces as he got a chill running down his entire body, turned around and saw the trident coming in his direction. 

"This is it! When he teleports to it I will slash him immediately."-he thought and readied his sword to strike at Shoji when he teleported. 

Toshiro realised what was happening and activated his right crescent, teleporting the trident to his hand. He grabbed onto it tightly and used it as support to stand up. He had an opportunity to strike at the enemy, but decided to instead let Shoji teleport to him safely. 

"What the?"-the warrior exclaimed. 

"Thanks for the help, Toshiro. You did well."-Toshiro heard Shoji's voice and looked on his right to realise he was standing besides him, holding onto the trident. He then looked at his student and smiled brightly, as a way to tell him that everything was ok. 

"What's this?"-Toshiro thought as he focused on Shoji's coat. 

"So we finally meet, prick."-said the man in purple, while looking at Shoji ferociously like a beast.

"The honour's mine, Lust of the 7 deadly sins."

"Oh? So you know my position too. I am not suprised though, especially after you interrogated my soldiers and then burned the entire camp to the ground."-he responded while stroking his beard.

"Just returning the favour."-Shoji looked seriously at him and charged in with his trident, Lust doing the same. They both clashed their weapons and traded quick blows, even tho Lust could only use his right hand. Shoji definitely fascinated Toshiro. Now that he was training too he realised how skilled he was in using the trident, it was indeed as if he was dancing, a little butterfly delicately flying around with it's tender wings. He was spinning the trident while fighting as if it was weightless, yet Toshiro struggled to even hold it. 

Shoji sensed something weird about Lust, his attacks were strong, even though he wasn't as fast and definitely not as physically strong as a trained shinobi. After another clash of their weapons Shoji dodged his next horizontal attack by kneeling and striking at his leg with his trident, which Lust couldn’t dodge and instead responded by attacking Shoji's face. Because of the length difference of their weapons Lust could only barely scratch his face, which ran through his forehead, through the nose and finishing after the lips. 

"Damnit!"-Shoji thought and pulled out his trident and Lust fell to the ground, unable to step with his left leg now. 

"Ugh... damn it. I have no more options, I have to activate it."-thought the sin and started laughing hysterically. "This is the end for you all!"

"What's this coming out from his sword? It's not chakra..."-thought Toshiro as he saw the sin getting covered by something coming out of the sword, something that Shoji couldn't see. After a while the thing took the shape of a human and got consumed by Lust. 

"It's a soul! Shoji! There's a soul coming out of the sword, he is eating it."-shouted Toshiro while Lust was noticeably getting larger, his muscles growing bigger, tearing his expensive clothes at some spots. 

"What!?"-asked Shoji surprised while Lust charged towards him, this time overpowering him. After he dodged some of his attacks he threw his trident in the air(spinning), Lust looked at it expecting him to teleport there, but instead Shoji charged in and stabbed him with a kunai. The deadly sin tried to slash him but the cloud ninja teleported to the trident, which now coupled with Shoji's weight landed on his back, then he pulled it out and jumped away before Lust could grab him. 

"Jesus, he is still growing, what a monster."-thought the teacher while he witnessed the monster pull out the kunai from his chest as if it was nothing. He wasn't regenerating from the injuries, but he was definitely not feeling much pain from them, easily stepping with his left leg now.

Shoji stuck his trident to the ground and started waving hand signs while Lust charged towards him. 

"Water Style: Water Pillar"-Shoji then put his hand in front of his mouth and produced water out of it. The blast overwhelmed Lust but he was still able to not get blasted away by it. In the meantime Shoji was waving more hand signs. 

"Earth Style: Lithic Press"-Shoji then kneeled and put his hands on the ground, 2 boulders rose up from the ground surrounding Lust and moving in to crush him. He instead of opted to get overwhelmed by the water jutsu and got repelled meters away. 

"Why was my earth style so weak? It feels like my muscles are going numb and my cut from his sword is burning. Is this poison? Shit. And from such a small cut too..."-though Shoji as he picked up his trident. 

"Damn it, this is harder than I thought, the duration of the soul's effects is running out too, but the poison should already be in effect."-thought Lust as he stood up from the ground. "Forget about this, I can't win against him... ugh I will have to go after the kid instead."

Lust then started sprinting towards Toshiro now that he was closer to him from the water jutsu. Toshiro started trembling at the sight of this beast, yet prepared his pose to fight him head on like last time. 

"Toshiro! Teleport the trident!"-Shoji shouted. Toshiro hesitated for a moment but did as he was told. Shoji teleported to the trident immediately after and started running towards Lust while waving hand signs, leaving the trident to Toshiro. 

"There's only one thing I can do before the poison immobilizes me completely."-Shoji thought as he waved his final sign and Lust stabbed him in the liver. 

"SHOJII!!!"-screamed Toshiro who was still holding tightly to the trident. 

"Why didn't he dodge? Why didn't he teleport? What happened?"-thought Lust as he watched over the man he had killed. But before he could pull out his sword Shoji grabbed him with his left hand and formed the hand seal of confrontation in the other one.

"He is not dead?!"

"Forbidden Technique: Blood Coffin"-Shoji muttered and his blood from the injury started spreading over Lust's hand in lines, then all over his body. 

"Huh?"

"Who would've thought I would use the technique you taught me, brother."-Shoji muttered with a smile but then coughed blood from his mouth. Toshiro was in such deep shock from the battle, he couldn't wait any longer and started running towards his teacher. From the beginning he tried not to get in their way, but now it was all meaningless to him. 

"Yes, come here, kid... I have to give you something..."-responded Shoji as the crying child ran to him. "In my pocket... there is a letter... take it... and my headband... take them to the cloud village with my trident..."

"NO! I can't leave you! I can't!"-cried Toshiro as he grabbed his teacher's coat. 

"My goal was never to live a long life... my goal was to take out the 7 deadly sins and later on to protect you. Even though I could only succeed with the second goal... I am happy. I can die happily now, since you will be safe. To die protecting someone else... what more could a Shinobi ask for..."

Toshiro looked over to Lust, his heart was still beating but he was completely immobilized by Shoji's jutsu. Toshiro knew what Shoji would do next and silently complied, taking the letter and the headband from his pocket.  
"Throw the trident as far as you can. Focus your chakra in your hand, then throw it again... and again, until you can. You already know what will happen."-Shoji instructed his student and then coughed more blood from his mouth. "Just make sure you get to the Hidden Cloud Village..."

"You are my real dad! I don't know what type of a person he is, but I know he would have never been as great as you!"-Toshiro cried his heart out. 

"I love you too, Toshiro..."

The kid didn't know what more to say, so he gripped his trident tightly and threw it as far as he could. "I will become strong... really strong... I will avenge you... I promise you!"

Shoji could only smile at this point, since his entire body was getting numb at this point. Toshiro shed his final tear and teleported away from the fight. 

The jutsu was now getting weaker and Lust managed to finally say a word. 

"How heartbreaking, I almost shed a tear."-said Lust in a mocking way. 

"Fuck you!"-Shoji managed to mutter. 

"And what will you do now? Your jutsu will soon break and I will go after that kid. I will rip him apart!"

"You are going to hell with me, fucker..."-Shoji responded, which was basically a whisper at this point and unbuttoned his coat with his right hand, without breaking the hand seal and revealed to Lust dozens of paper bombs stickered both on the coat and his shirt. 

"Toshiro knew that I had them, yet he didn't protest against it, he knew that I would do it... thank you... you are truly a kind kid..."-Shoji thought as the bombs started glowing up in preparation for the explosion and managed to smile one final time. 

Toshiro who was about to throw the trident a 5th time now heard the explosion and froze in place. He bit his lips and continued crying, since the only person who ever cared about him was now dead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I honestly feel bad about killing off Shoji so early on, I really like him as a character for some reason. I think I should have tried explaining more how he looks like, but since I planned from the beginning to kill him I thought "pfff what's the point". But that's just me being lazy I guess. 
> 
> Didn't spend much time on Lust as well, only thing I wanted to explain more is his sword, but my explanation won't be as good as a picture either way, so here it is: http://imgur.com/a/Ur1VL89
> 
> Next chapter will again cover up more about Toshiro's background, but soon we should be able to finally start the normal timeline like in Naruto. 
> 
> If anyone is wondering how the trident looks, it's a less eccentric version of the Lightscale Trident in The Legend of Zelda: Breathe of the Wild. 
> 
> I think this is all I wanted to say so far about the series, hopefully later on I could write more writer's notes, since things will get spicy.


	3. The Meeting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Shoji's death Toshiro goes to the Hidden Cloud village and becomes their 'secret weapon'. He trains in the academy for 2 years and is then introduced to his teammates. The 7 Deadly Sins hold their meeting the night after Shoji and Lust's death.

After the explosion Toshiro continued throwing the trident as far as he could, this time not holding his tears at all. He already knew where the Hidden Cloud village was, it was written on his book and he had discussed it with Shoji before. 

Still, the Hidden Cloud village was so far away, that it took Toshiro until noon to arrive at the destination, taking a couple of breaks along the way. He was hungry, exhausted, fatigued and emotionally crippled. He was just a child, yet he had to go through it. 

The closer he got to it the higher the height above sea level got, the air got cleaner but also harder to breathe, either that or he was just too tired. When he finally arrived at the entrance, he saw even more stairs, leading to what seemed to be the gate of the village, after that it was a bunch of mountains, connected by bridges. A bit below the peaks of the mountains multiple houses/buildings could be seen.

Toshiro threw his trident one final time to teleport at the gate without having to climb the stairs. He fell down, barely able to stand on his feet now, he raised his head to see 2 shinobi in fighting positions.

"Identify yourself, intruder!"-shouted the one on the right. 

"I have a letter... to deliver."-was all that Toshiro could say before he passed out. 

When he opened his eyes he saw a white ceiling, he then looked around to realise he was in a strange room, little to his knowledge, this was a hospital room. He quickly got up and activated his byakugan. He saw other people in the building as well as other patients and a woman approaching his room. She then opened the door and looked over at Toshiro. 

"You are awake!"-exclaimed the woman and ran over to his bed. "Your name is Toshiro, right?"

"Yes..."-he answered, visibally confused. He made sure to deactivate his byakugan before she opened the door, even though he knew it was obvious from his eyes. 

"You were there, right? Please tell me, is he alive? Is Shoji alive?"-she asked desperately. 

The kid just looked at her with his wide eyes, not saying a word, then tilting his head downwards and shaking it to signal he was dead. The woman started tearing up which made Toshiro start to cry as well, she noticed it and hugged his head gently. They cried together until they got interrupted by a shinobi entering the room. 

"I am sorry to interrupt you, but the Raikage wants to meet with the kid."

The woman looked at the ninja and then turned back to Toshiro. "It will be fine."-she reassured him and let go of him. The Hyuuga got up from the bed and went along with the ninja to the Raikage's office, where they were met by the Kage's assisant-Mabui. 

She thanked the ninja and politely told him to leave. "Hello, you must be Toshiro. The Raikage should be here soon."-she told the Hyuuga while looking carefully at his eyes, there was no doubt, he had the Byakugan. 

"I am sure you know why you are here. Did you read the letter?"

"No..."

"Thought so. Here's what's written on it, sir."-Mabui then handed the letter to Toshiro, which read the following: *If you are reading this, I, Shoji, am dead. Hopefully this letter makes it's way to the Hidden Cloud village in case this happens. For the last 2 months I've rescued and trained a boy from the recently destroyed Silverdust village, his name is Toshiro. I am sorry to have kept this a secret, but I was afraid to hand him over to the village, primarly because of his eyes. There is no doubt about it, he is a naturally born wielder of the Byakugan, his father is unknown, presumably a Hyuuga clan member. I have only one request-let the boy live. He is a capable ninja, for the short time I have trained him he has become a capable shinobi. I am fully aware of our village's ambitions for the Byakugan, but I assure you, no one else will be able to use it better than him, he has a Hyuuga body, good chakra control and is already proficient enough with the gentle fist. He is a talented kid, far more than your average ninja. 

I beg you, let him live with my wife and attend the ninja academy, he would prove useful to the village. I have already marked him with my double crescent seal, he can use my trident, I wish for him to inherit it. I am sorry for not being able to complete my mission, you were right, Raikage-sama.*

At the end of the letter there was his signature alongside some sort of code/kanji mark to prove it was him. 

Toshiro started tearing up again while reading the letter, realising the woman at the hospital was probably Shoji's wife. But then got interrupted again by a person storming in the room through the window, which brought a shocked and slightly silly expression on his face.

"Raikage-sama, the child is here, please refrain from going through the window."-Mabui said while walking over to him.

"Did he read the letter?"-he asked while going over to his desk and sitting in his chair. 

"Yes, he just read it."

"Good. Come over here, kid. Tell me what happened to Shoji, where did he die?"

"Near Redguard city, we set up camp..."-answered Toshiro while holding the letter tightly. 

"Just as we thought, the explosion that happened yesterday near Redguard was from him."-Mabui then started going over some of the lists she was holding and then handed one to A. 

"What happened? Was he fighting someone?"

"Yes, he was fighting a guy in purple, he carried a big sword, Shoji called him Lust..."

"What?!"-A then slammed his hands on his desk and stoop up. "What happened next? Did he kill him?"

"I... I don't know, I ran away as far as I could with the trident... but I heard the explosion. Shoji had trapped the enemy with some sort of... I don't know it was a blood ninjutsu."-Toshiro explained as quickly as possible, visibally disturbed and scared from A. The Raikage then calmed down and sat back down. 

"No bodies were found at the scene, sir. The explosion should have left some traces of them. What should we assume of that?"-asked Mabui while pointing to the list she had given to A. 

A then thought for a bit and told Toshiro: "From now on you will be a Hidden Cloud village citizen, you will live with Shoji's wife-Emiko. You are first and foremost a weapon to our village, don't forget that. Now leave!"

Toshiro thanked them and left the room. 

"They probably retrieved the bodies before the troops arrived at the scene."-A said and then turned oved to Mabui.

"This is indeed what most likely occured. About the kid... are you sure this is the right choice? We finally have the Byakugan in our posession, we can always implant them to one of our ninjas, yourself included."-proposed Mabui.

"You read the letter yourself, Shoji implied the kid is a genius, we will have to see for ourselves. If he is not we can take his eyes, both options will work just fine."

The night before Toshiro woke up in the hospital an unknonm man in a dark blue hooded robe investigated the scene of the explosion. 

"They're both dead, what a shame. To be born so well off and waste it..."-the mysterious man then examined the bodies and picked what little remained of them. After that he teleported to a hideout in an unknown location and placed the bodies on 2 different beds. 

"So? Is he alive?"-asked another man standing next to the entrance to the room. 

"No, they are both dead. Get ready to communicate with the master, Greed."

"I know that already, you don't need to remind me."

After that they both went to a different room where the man wearing a robe waved the hand signs necessary for the technique and placed his hand on the ground where multiple kanji letters appared, making 2 circles, one surrounding them and another being placed in front of them. 

On the circle in front of them the projections of 4 other people appeared as well as a 5th one, sitting in front of them. 

"Welcome everyone! Even though we can't talk face to face, Envy's communication technique should be good enough. Now, let's get to the point, Lust is dead."

"What a suprise."-a large figure responded in a mocking way. 

"Even after I gave him that sword..."-Greed said disappointed. 

"And that old poison I coated it with."-added another figure with a rather rusty voice.

"Don't forget I gave that soul for the sword, Greed."-said another figure, she was a very short and petite old grandma.

"Thank you to all who helped him, I appreciate it. In the end we didn't need him, we only let him join for his wealth. His presence in the organisation and constant looting of villages have caused us much harm, thankfully his own soldiers didn't know much about us."-the man sitting in front of them said. 

"Were's better off without that idiot, such weaklings like him have no place among the Deadly Sins."-the large figure responded. 

"You are right, Gluttony. And now that he is dead, all of his riches are left for us, his funding will help us a lot."-the sitting man continued. "Now that Shoji isn't after us we can comfortably continue searching for the amulets. No one will replace Lust, we can't risk getting a spy among our ranks. Too much information has been leaked already. You will have to continue your missions as 6. This is all for now."

After that everyone started disconnecting from the jutsu and Envy removed the kanji from the floor. 

"Well, back to work I guess."-said Greed and left the room. 

After Toshiro's arrival at the Hidden Cloud village he enrolled at the academy and lived with Emiko. Needless to say he was a natural prodigy, he finished grades twice as quickly and by 12 had already been accepted to the special program.

"It's your big day Toshiro! Have a good meal, you deserve it."-said Emiko while putting the final dishes at the table, Toshiro already eating with joy. 

"Thanks for the meal, mom!"-he responded while eating his breakfast. After 10 or so minutes he finished and went to the front door to put on his shoes. He still had long hair as before, except that Emiko was much better at giving a haircut than Shoji. He was wearing a grey hoodie and white jeans, his favourite clothes. On his right he wore his weapon pouch filled with kunais, shurikens, paper bombs and smoke bombs. 

Emiko watched as he was getting ready thinking that he was exactly like Shoji, something that brought a smile to her face. Emiko and Shoji had known each other since the academy and he always admired her, she was doing well in school and was even in the special program. Something he himself couldn't achieve. 

Emiko was beyond excited for him, she was extremely proud of him and his achievements, Toshiro was the only thing left from Shoji alongside the trident, which was now proudly carried by him. 

"I will be going now."-said Toshiro happily and waved goodbye at Emiko. He then started walking to the academy, where the final confirmation of the special program was being held. It was held outside this time, as there were too many classes, it couldn't be held in a single classroom.

Even though the Hidden Cloud village had so many students, very few actually graduated. And this special program was basically the only confirmation that you were going to graduate, as only 3 students from the entire year got accepted into it. It was for the most elite students, regarded as the Big 3 by most. Most who got accepted into it became high ranking jonins, it was a method to ensure the most talented weren't dragged on by the others. This was one of the many reasons why the Hidden Cloud village was so strong. 

When he got there he greeted his classmates and made his way to the front. Everyone already knew who was going to be accepted to the special program, but the ceremony was still being held. 

"Seems like everyone is here now, except ugh... Ronin..."-the teacher said disappointed and went over to pick some lists, hoping he would appear in the meantime. "Without further ado, it's time we name the honour's students. Congratulations to Toshiro! Please come next to me!"

Everyone then started clapping and cheering for him as he got to the platform on which the teacher was. "From now on you are officially in the special program. Now let's also congratulate our next honour's student who got accepted, Yumiko please come next to me."

This time not many clapped, it was rather silent compared to the cheers that Toshiro received. It wasn't a secret many disliked Yumiko, she was a cold person, merciless to her opponents and classmates. There was no doubt about it though, she was the prodigy that her clan had desired for so long. The Yotsuki clan had been in decline for years, nearly losing it's nobility status on multiple occasions. It was up to her alone to restore it's glory. 

She made her way to the podium and stood next to Toshiro, who barely knew her because she was from the other class. "And the final student is... his name is..."-the teacher tried to delay the awkward scene as much as possible. 

"I am here!! I am coming!!!"-a kid shouted while running towards the academy. It was none other than Ronin, the class clown who somehow made it to the top without being able to perform hand seals. For unknown reasons he was extremely clumsy with his dextirity, the most he could reliably do is hold a weapon, which was entirely what he focused on. Thus he carried the twin swords of his father on his back. He was from a civillian lineage, no one else besides his father was a ninja, but he never gave up on his dream. 

He made his way to the platform while the others were silently laughing and wheezing. He stood next to the other 2 students proudly, even though he looked the silliest out of them with his pinapple-like shaped brown hair. "Congratulations to you 3, everyone else can return to their classrooms now! Come on, quicker everyone!"-the teacher then started instructing his students. 

He then went back to the Big 3 and explained to them what would happen next: "From now on you 3 will not be my students anymore, you will be assigned a Jonin to teach you and if things go as planned you will graduate as elite genins next year with him as your Jonin captain. He should come here in 10 minutes, I am not sure but from the rumours I heard, this year it will be someone special, sent exclusively by the Raikage himself."

"Really?! The Raikage himself sent a special Jonin to teach me?"-Ronin started jumping in excitement. 

"Not you, Ronin! It's for the 3 of you. I'm sorry to break it down to you but it's most likely to keep a close watch over Toshiro."-the teacher bluntly responded. Toshiro himself sort of expected this, he had not forgotten what the Raikage told him that day. He was the Hidden Cloud's weapon, pride and honour, he didn't have room for mistakes. It wasn't shocking that the Raikage sent a jonin to closely monitor the developement of their secret weapon, they made sure the information about Toshiro's Byakugan to not leak out to the other villages, but information about the Hidden Cloud was already extremely private. 

"Whatever, just wait until the Jonin arrives. And act POLITELY. I am the one who will be responsible for your behaviour."-he said annoyed. 

"Yo."-a voice came from behind the teacher. He turned around suprised and saw none other than Darui, the right hand of the Raikage. 

"Darui?! What are you doing here?"

"I am the Jonin of special program kids."-he said with his usual dull face. 

"Oh... wow... well I guess I will leave them to you then, have fun!"-he responded with a big awkward smile, that was rather fake.

"To send Darui of all people here... what a mess. The Raikage must really care for this kid to send his right hand man. But then again, this is Darui after all. He was also a special program student unlike... me..."-the teacher ranted in his mind and started walking over to the entrance of the academy while scratching his head.

"Byee Sensei! I will miss you!"-Ronin started shouting and waving his hand. 

"Why did I choose a job with kids..."

"OK kids... I have to do something with you... uhm... we will have to train or something. How about we start with a simple fight to evaluate your skills. Toshiro and pineapple kid, you go first."

"Who are you calling pinapple kid!? I don't look like that at all. Y'all are just jealous that it's able to stand like that."-he responded furiously. 

Darui's team then went to another training ground where they will train from now on, it was located near the Raikage's office. 

"Alright, you 2 should do the Seal of Reconciliation first and then start the fight."-Darui said while sitting on the bench next to Yumiko. 

The 2 students did as they were told and readied their weapons. Toshiro was of course using Shoji's trident while Ronin was using his dad's twin swords. They were wide and thin, kind of goofy looking. They were also slightly curved and most importantly, they had 2 tips. When the 2 swords were put next to each other symmetrically the 2 tips acted as the angles of a square. 

"These are weird swords, I should be careful though, he made it to the Big 3 with his swordsmanship skills alone."-Toshiro thought as he prepared to fight him.

"1, 2, 3. Start!"-Darui shouted and the students charged at each other clashing their weapons. Ronin then started slashing at his opponent faster and faster. His swords were already thin which allowed him to move them around freely, them being curved also helped him with slashing his targets. 

He quickly started spinning inbetween some of his attacks and at the end jumped in the air to deliver the final attack, but Toshiro didn't try to defend against it. Instead he grabbed his trident with his right hand alone and extended it as far as he could to the right, then before Ronin could hit him he teleported to the trident grabbing it with his left hand, thus dodging his attack entirely. Toshiro then tried to counter-attack as quickly as possible but wasn't fast enough, as Ronin could lift his swords from the ground and defend just in time. They exchanged quick blows again and clashed their weapons in a power struggle. 

"You are pretty good, freaky eyes."-said Ronin while looking at him with a smile. 

"You too..."-Toshiro responded and continued to focus on the battle. 

Ronin's blades then started to get coated in electricity and sparks, as his swords started cutting through Toshiro's trident. Realising what was happening the Hyuuga stepped back and continued to exchange blows with his teammate, even more sparks appearing. 

"This is bad, he can cut through my trident with his lightning release. No, not quite though, it's not as developed. The lightnings on his sword aren't that big/many. He hasn't developed that technique entirely yet."-Toshiro thought as he got pushed away. "There's only one way to counter this."

Toshiro then stopped retreating and counter attacked Ronin, who protected himself with his swords as the trident clashed with them. But this time the trident stopped getting cut through as the young Hyuuga was able to concentrante his chakra exactly where their weapons met. 

"So you figured it out?"-Ronin asked suprised.

"Usually only channeling lightning release onto my weapon myself can stop it, but your technique isn't as refined yet, which makes me able to counter it by simply focusing chakra through my weapon(as little as it is)."

"Damn, you were able to figure out so much in seconds, now I am starting to realise why you are considered a genius."-Ronin then started attacking Toshiro again but his attacks got completely repelled and now coupled with the trident's teleportation the Hyuuga was now on the offensive. 

Not long after Ronin tried to spin in the air to deliver a strong attack but Toshiro successfully dodged it by kneeling down and spun himself to kick down his opponent. After which the swordsman fell to the ground and Toshiro pointed his trident to his face. 

"Okay okay, you win."-Ronin confessed bitterly as he got up from the ground, but then chuckled up a bit since it was a pretty good fight.

After that clapping was heard coming from the bench, it was Darui. 

"Great match you 2! That was so drab."-Darui said trying to sound excited, which made him look rather awkward and fake. "Who will be next?"

"I want to fight Toshiro."-Yumiko stood up and walked over to her teammates. 

"You can't do that! Before that you will have to go through me!"-Ronin shouted excited to fight. 

"Get lost, I am not going to waste my time with failures like you."

"Who are you calling a failure? Let's fight and see who is really stronger then!"

"Fine! I will make sure you realise the difference between us two."-she responded pissed off. 

Toshiro silently put his trident on his back and went over to Darui, who was already regretting this. Yumiko and Ronin waved the Seal of Reconciliation and started their fight. 

Ronin yet again charged in to close the distance between them but Yumiko clenched her fist and pulled out needles inbetween her fingers. She then threw them at her opponent, who dodged them. She continued to throw them until he finally deflected some of them with his swords. 

"Finally."-she thought and this time threw 2 needles in the air. Ronin's swords suddenly started moving towards them, but he gripped them as hard as he could and resisted it. 

"What's happening?"-Ronin shouted while trying his hardest to hold them. 

"It's my kekkei genkai, idiot. Magnet Release allows me to magnetise my needles, when they come into contact with your swords or any other object I can either attract my needles to them or the objects I magnetised to my needles."-as Yumiko explained her needles finally came back and hit the ground, which made Ronin's swords start pointing there instead of the air. 

"Kekkei genkai..."-Toshiro mummered as he watched the fight from the benches. 

"Yeah, it's a powerful elemental kekkei genkai. The Yotsuki clan have been very benefitial to our village because of it, even though recently they have fallen off from their previous glory..."-Darui mentioned while watching the fight. 

"Why?"-asked Toshiro curiously. 

"Well, kekkei genkais are first and foremost DNA. One can both inherit them and not, it's all luck. Recently though it seems like the clan has gone out of luck, coupled with the fact that most don't want to be ninjas anyway. She is the clan's last hope to restore their glory, otherwise they would lose their noble status. This is too much pressure for a kid to carry if you ask me..."

Yumiko then started waving hand seals. 

"The magnetic effect is getting weaker, I can either protect myself with the swords or let them go and run... or..."-Ronin thought and realised he didn't have much time, so he started running towards the needles, which were in front of Yumiko. 

"Wind Style: Breakthrough"-Yumiko waved the final hand signs and started a deep breathe.

She then exhaled the air from her mouth, but Ronin managed to reach the needles and hit them with his swords, then jumped in the air to avoid the projectile.He then spun around in the air and slashed with his swords at Yumiko, but she managed to pull out her kunais just in time to protect herself, clashing them with Ronin's weapons.

"How did you know the magnetism gets released once you touch it?"-Yumiko asked while exchanging blows with Ronin, who was slightly faster than her. 

"Instinct"-Ronin responded and then clashed his swords with her kunais and applied lightning release, which started slowly cutting through her weapons. 

Yumiko then gulped and spat out a needle from her mouth, which Ronin noticed in time and backed off, she proceeded to throw her kunais in the 2 corners of the field behind him, which made his swords pull in different directions. 

"I can still move, I can do this."-Ronin thought and pushed his body as hard as he could towards Yumiko, until he realised she was waving more hand signs. 

"Earth Style: Earth Pillar"-she knelt to the ground and put her hands on it. A pillar then appeared in front of Ronin which hit him in the chest and repelled him backwards. He let go of his swords mid air and hit the ground, unable to breathe from the hit. 

"This is bad..."-Darui said and jumped over to Ronin, it didn't take to be a genius to realise he was in a bad condition. 

"Some of his ribs are broken."-Toshiro mentioned as he examined him. 

"Eh... class over. I am gonna take Ronin to the hospital..."-Darui told them and picked Ronin who was audibly aching in pain. The teacher then went out of sight in a single body flicker. 

"You didn't have to hit him as hard."-Toshiro confronted Yumiko.

"Don't act as if it's my fault, I warned him. Besides, aren't we going to finish the match?"-Yumiko prompted him to fight, which Toshiro considered for a bit but ultimately turned his back on her. "Get lost."-was all that he responded with as he walked away. 

Yumiko didn't really know how to respond to that, instead she just watched as he walked away. "Why wouldn't he want to fight me? Wasn't he pissed that I hit his friend..."-she thought, unable to realise that Toshiro didn't want to continue what he despised. Why couldn't she provoke him? Why didn't he want to fight?

Toshiro then went back home but didn't mention what happened to his mom, only who the other students and Jonin are. 

Yumiko on the other hand spent the rest of the day training, lost in thoughts. When she finally came back home she was met by her dad at the door step. 

"What happened? Did you spar with the Byakugan genius?"-her father asked with a rather angry tone. 

"No, we only trained today. Tomorrow I will ask him..."-she answered and went inside. 

"I hope you realise what's at stakes here, I already heard that the Raikage sent none other than his right hand. He will report everything back to him, you have to show them that you are stronger than that 'secret weapon' brat. Did I make myself clear?"-he asked yet again in a infuriated manner, which is most likely his usual state. 

"Yes, dad..."-Yumiko responded and went to her room.


	4. A Normal Day.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team 1 continues their training and eventually embarks on their first mission.

The following days Toshiro regularly went to the hospital to meet with Ronin, who was patiently waiting for his recovery. It was a serious injury, but thankfully the village hired doctors from the Land of Lightning. The Hidden Cloud village wasn't that exceptional in terms of their healthcare, but they had enough funding from the Daimyo to hire doctors when in need. 

"So, how has training been?"-asked Ronin while eating a peace of bread. 

"Well, the usual so far. Darui mentioned something about other Jonins teaching us, but that has been postponed until you get back on your feet."-answered Toshiro while playing with a chakra control toy. It was a plastic that could easily shape shift if you properly channeled chakra through it. He was able to make it into a sphere, rectangles, spikes, butterflies and everything inbetween.

"What's that?"-Ronin asked curiously while still having food in his mouth. 

"Oh, this? It's a gift from Darui, he told me I should focus on my strenghts as well as my weaknesses, apperantly chakra control is one of them."

"Can I try it?"

"Sure."-Toshiro then handed over the toy to his teammate, who tried to shape shift it into a mini sword but instead it became a wobbly square. "Ugh... I am not good at this."-he admitted disappointed and handed it over to Toshiro.

"Doesn't really matter, you are strong in other things."-Toshiro reassured him. 

"I suppose... how is Yumiko doing? I hope she isn't beating herself over for my injury."-he asked with a cheeky smile. 

"Not at all..."

"Oh... atleast it was a good fight. Hopefully soon I can get better and fight her again, this time I will win for sure!"

"I hope so too. I have to get going now, see you tomorrow."-Toshiro replied and picked up his trident, which was placed in the corner of the room, then waved at Ronin and left. 

Toshiro went to their training ground where he found Yumiko already training. He wasn't sure if she encouraged him but he was definetely impressed by her dedication. She would always be earlier than him and leave after he does. 

Toshiro isn't that talkative in general, only really able to relax and speak when with friends like Ronin. Yumiko was the type of person he would rarely talk to, neither did she want to talk with him. 

"Yo!"-Toshiro heard Darui's voice from behind him. 

"You have to stop doing this..."-Toshiro complained as he turned over to Darui, who couldn't care less about it. 

"Yeah... I will try. That's not what's important though. Look what I brought today."-Darui then pulled out small papers from his pocket.

"I have heard of those. These are chakra papers, right?"-The Hyuuga asked while looking at them, Yumiko walking next to him to see as well. 

"Yes, you are right. Today you will find your chakra nature."-Darui then gave both of them chakra papers. "You just have to apply the tiniest amount of chakra and the paper will change accordingly to what your affinity is."

"I already know mine but ok."-Yumiko then applied chakra to her paper, it split in half, then it turned to dirt and crumbled away. 

"Because you have Magnet Release you are born with both Earth and Wind style, so the paper reacted to both of them."-Darui explained and then did the same to his chakra paper, his turned wet and wrinkled. 

"Sensei, isn't wrinkling a sign of Lightning Release? You have both?"-Toshiro asked curiously. 

"Well, I have a kekkei genkai too..."

"What? What is yours then?"-Yumiko asked, more so demandingly. 

"It's called Storm Release. I was born with both Lightning and Water affinities."

"But... you don't come from a clan?"-she continued investigating.

"Yeah, I don't have one, neither do I know my parents. That's not what's important though, what's important is who I am."-he answered with a smile, something unusual for him. Yumiko sensed he was acting strangely, perhaps to influence her in some way. 

Toshiro then focused his chakra on his paper, after which it split in half. "Wind Release..."-he announced silently. 

"Just as expected, since the Hyuuga clan has Wind affinities."-Darui thought and then put the rest of the papers in his pockets. 

"Yumiko, do you mind helping Toshiro with his Wind Style?"

"Fine..."-she answered and went back to her training. 

"I have a mission today, so I have to go now. See you tomorrow."-Darui told Toshiro and left in the blink of an eye. The Hyuuga then turned around to see Yumiko striking her needles at the targets she had set. 

"Why are you looking at me? I won't help you with Wind Style."

"OK..."-Toshiro answered and went to another target. "Why does he never get mad at me? What is wrong with him?"-she thought as she struck 3 needles at the target's head, which was just a copy of the human body. 

"If you fight me I will teach you my Wind Release techniques."-she challenged him directly. 

"No, thanks."

"What the fuck is your problem?"-she grabbed him by his hoodie. 

"My problem? What is your problem?"-he snapped at her and pushed her away, something she didn't expect from the otherwise shy kid that he was. 

"Forget about it!"-she told him after she decided she would want Darui to see her win. 

From then on they didn't even look at each other, as if they didn't even know each other. Ronin made a quick recovery after thanks to the medical jutsu of the doctor they hired. It has been 3 months since the incident and Darui had a 'suprise' for his students. 

"Today we will have a very special guest, his name is-"-Darui tried to explain but quickly got cut off from a man shouting behind him. 

"Wheee! I am the beast of the sea with 8 tails, yo!"-Killer Bee then jumped in front of the kids. 

"Woow! You are Killer Bee! I have heard you tamed your tailed beast. Are you really invincible to Genjutsu? If you eat octoputs is that considered cannibalism?"-Ronin started passionately asking questions. 

"Hmm... a cannibalist octopus, that sounds good for some lyrics."-Killer Bee thought and opened his notebook to write down what he had thought of. 

"As you all probably know, since Killer Bee has loads of free time he can train with you for a while..."-Darui explained and then looked over to Killer Bee already staring curiously towards Ronin's hair.

"That's one silly hairstyle, bakayaru konayaru."-he then started touching it to see how it stands like that. 

"Hey! Don't touch it, it's not an attraction, besides pieces of art should not be touched!"-Ronin furiously protested while the otherwise serious Toshiro cracked a slight and quite laughter. 

"One idiot after another."-Yumiko thought while witnessing the circus in front of her. 

"As I was saying, Killer Bee can train with you..."-Darui tried to explain but his quite and boring voice got lost in the rant between Bee and Ronin. "I will be going now, have fun."

"Byeee!"-Ronin waved at Darui. 

After that the special program kids trained hard with Killer Bee, who was more or less just training with Ronin, since Yumiko pretended he doesn't exist and Toshiro was more focused on his wind style. 

After some 2 months of training Killer Bee had to return to his usual place, waiting for orders. Even though Darui was their sensei, he was first and foremost the Raikage's right hand, so he was usually quite busy. 

"Today we will have another special guest. Someone you all can probably recognise-"-Darui tried to explain but got cut off from Ronin. 

"Oh, is it the 2 tailed beast Jinchuuriki this time? Or is it that other special program student who recently became a Jonin? His name is C, right?"

"No, C won't be your guest today. It's another letter though, you can probably guess already but it's-"-Darui yet again got cut off by a large muscular figure flying through the Raikage office's windows and landing next to him. 

"It's the Raikage!"-Yumiko and Ronin exclaimed at the same time, Toshiro equally as suprised. He had not seen him since the day he came to the village but he had not forgotten about him. 

"There are 2 things I expect from the special program team-talent and hard work. Don't think I am here to train you, I am here to evaluate if you are fit for the special team."-he explained, stressing out the kids a bit, even though this was just him trying to be scary in front of them. 

"The test is simple, you have to land a hit on me. I won't attack you, I promise."-lightning started cloaking around him, it was his Lightning Release: Chakra Mode. 

"I got this!"-Ronin announced and jumped in to slash his opponent but A quickly dodged his attack, went behind him and grabbed him by his clothes. 

"Is this all you's got?"-A asked half shoutedly. Toshiro then appeared behind A and tried to stab him with his trident but the Raikage threw Ronin towards Toshiro which repelled him backwards. 

"Where's the third o-"-the Raikage thought before Yumiko submerged from beneath the ground. 

"Earth Style: Rending Drill Fang"-this allowed her to dug herself into the ground and suprise the Raikage, what was more suprising though was that Toshiro's trident was in her hands. The one that Toshiro was using was simply a Transformed needle from Yumiko. She tried to stab him, but A stepped backwards. Then Toshiro teleported to the trident with his right hand mid-air while holding Ronin by his leg with his left hand. They were like a snake, together they managed to get in the range of the Raikage and try to strike him. 

Toshiro swung Ronin with all his strenght who was already channeling Lightning through his sword. 

"We can do it! We are in range."-Ronin thought and slashed with his swords at A's neck. 

"I can dodge this..."-A thought but ultimately let Ronin hit him, of course it didn't even scratch him. After that all 3 of them fell to the ground. 

"We did it!!!"-Ronin and Toshiro started celebrating while Darui walked over to A. 

"You could have dodged it..."-Darui pointed out while watching how his team started to quickly get into arguments, since Yumiko complained how Ronin charged in. 

"Complete idiot! That's what you are! Thank god I thought of an actual plan."-Yumiko cursed at Ronin.

"Who are you calling an idiot? I bought you time to think of the strategy, without my distraction you wouldn't have been able to dug yourself without him noticing."

"That's not true! I-You-UGH!"-she was beyond frustrated to the point she couldn't speak properly. 

"I could have... but they already achieved what I was looking for."-A explained to Darui. "Of course they won't be able to catch me, but they put their differences aside for a moment just so that they can achieve their goal. Actions and strenght are all that matters in this world, but you can't achieve them without giving it your all. And they did just that..."

"Alright kids, you can train with A for a bit more. Have fun."-Darui then left. And they did just as they were told. Even though they could spar with him for just a little bit, they made the most of their time. 

After 1 hour Yumiko was treating Toshiro's wound, since he fell during the sparring. "Want some of my lunch?"-Toshiro asked her while she was bandaging his leg. "No, thanks."-she answered while he was taking a bite from his sandwich. "Why is he nice to me all of a sudden?"

"Raikage, can I ask you something?"-Ronin asked him while drinking water. 

"What is it?"

"I wanted to ask about your lightning cloak. It's kind of similar to my lightning blades... how do you do it? I still can't cut well with them."

"It takes years to master it, quite frankly I haven't mastered it as well. But the basics of my jutsu is that you need to release lightning from all of your chakra points. And it should be even, but the more Lightning I release the harder it gets to even it out. It's a strong but complicated technique. You can start with just some parts of your body."-he explained and then released electicity just from his finger. 

"Your dad's weapons make it easy to channel lightning through them, right?"

"You know about my dad?"

"Yeah, not much though. I remember those swords quite cleary, they were a big deal back in the day."

"Wow... that's so cool! Now I feel somewhat special... or well as special as you can feel in a team of kekkei genkai users."

"Hahaha. I feel you kid."

And thus Ronin started his lightning release training. He made slow progress, but soon enough he could cloak his legs in lightning, thus becoming faster. His blade's lightning got stronger too but it was still pretty weak, or atleast he thought so. 

Yumiko focused on her jutsus. Having a kekkei genkai and 2 affinities is a big advantage but you also have to train a lot. To master 1 elemental release is hard already, she had 2 and her Magnet release. Thus she spent most of her time working on Wind and Earth jutsus. 

Toshiro started to find ways to use his Wind release. Since his hands were already preoccupied by his trident and fast paced fighting style, including his gentle fist, he didn't have much time to wave hand signs. He still learnt the simple Wind Release: Air Bullet. 

More months passed and it was already time for the academy graduation exam. 

"What do you mean we won't be taking it?"-asked Yumiko. 

"You are already in the special program, you don't need to participate in the exam."-Darui explained. 

"That's not what happened last year. Why did they change it?"-Toshiro added to the question.

"The Raikage is probably behind this change. Since he evaluated you yourself, he probably doesn't think you need to take the test."

"Whatever, it was going to be easy anyway."-Yumiko ranted, Toshiro and Ronin silently agreeing. 

"With that said. Next week you will have to take my exam. All Jonin team leaders are required to test the genins themselves, if said Jonin decides his team isn't ready... well he can send them back to the academy."

"WHAAAT?! We worked so hard just to be sent back if we fail?"-Ronin ranted, visibally mad. 

"It won't be that hard. The special program kids get the same test every year. I remember when I took it."

"So what is it going to be?"-Toshiro asked. 

"It will be a C-ranked mission. Special program kids are expected to atleast be able to execute that... or atleast not get in the way of the Jonin who is going to do all the work."-Darui awkwardly said while laughing, remembering his test. 

And thus 1 week later the team went to the Raikage's office for their mission assignment. 

"Team 1, right?"-Mabui asked while going through some lists. 

"Yes."-Darui answered. 

"Whee! The guts killing team is in, bakayaru konayaru."-Killer Bee stormed into the room with 3 kids behind him. 

"Bee! Wait for your turn!"-A got angry at him but quickly calmed down. "I knew this is a bad idea..."-he thought while shaking his head. 

"Whaaat?! You are a Genin team Leader? Why aren't you our teacher."-Ronin exclaimed, not trying to hide his preference to Killer Bee than Darui. 

"Well, I was told about this 1 week ago, so I don't know too, bro."

"Wait, is this you Omoi?"-Ronin recognised his old classmate. 

"Karui..."-Toshiro quitely said as he noticed her. "Who is the 3rd one's name?"-Toshiro asked Yumiko while pointing to a kid in the back, who was wearing a black uniform and a sword with a black hilt. His hair reached his shoulders, it was black too and wavy. In contrast to all of this were his bright blue eyes, which were a mix of looking cold and frightening. 

"Him? That's Ankoku. He used to be the number 1 student in the academy up until we turned 11, when you started getting to the top of the list his grades plummetted for unknown reasons."-Yumiko explained. She then went over to Darui to hear what their mission is, but Toshiro couldn't stop staring at him. 

He didn't really know why, but he was fixated on him. Ankoku then looked over to Toshiro, when their eyes met Toshiro instinctively looked away. As if a tiger stared down his pray, shivers went down his spine.

"What is going on? This doesn't feel right."-Toshiro then realised that the room progressively got darker and darker, then screams were heard. Everyone around him started disappearing into the darkness, consumed in mere seconds, their voices could no longer be heard. Instead it was screams, that of women and children. 

Toshiro panicked and tripped over, but he didn't fall on the ground. Instead he started falling into the darkness, an endless hole where the screams got louder the further he fell. He started screaming as well: "HELP! SOMEBODY! HELP". He closed his eyes, fully expecting to reach the end of the hole and die right there.

"Are you ok?"-he heard Yumiko's voice. When he opened his eyes he saw her head over his, Darui and Ronin were behind her as well, worried since he had started screaming. 

"What is going on?"-the Raikage asked, rather annoyed. 

"I... I..."-Toshiro stuttered as he got up, now being able to see that everyone in the room had stopped doing what they were doing before that, instead looking curiously at him. He immediately looked over to the blue eyed boy, who was in the back, also staring at him without any signs of emotions. But then he smirked for a split second, something that Toshiro noticed.

"It's... nothing. I'm fine."-he reassured everyone and got up fully on his feet. 

"What happened? Was it genjutsu? But he didn't even wave hand signs. Visual Genjutsu?"-Toshiro thought while trying to figure out what had just happened.

"Alright... which mission will we get?"-Darui asked Mabui. 

"Their Genin team test? Hmm... we prepared a mission but that got cancelled. How about this one? Belongings have started to disappear in Silverfang village. It seems to be from a normal thief, it should be a good opportunity for your team to see you investigate it."-Mabui then gave the sheet to Darui. 

"I don't know... I am not that good being a detective. It's really dull."-Darui awkwardly complained. "We do have Toshiro though. Maybe his Byakugan will be good for the job?"

"I can try."-Toshiro answered. 

"Only if he doesn't trip like that during the mission HA-HA-HA."-The Raikage joked loudly, rather awkward in the serious environment. 

"Yeah..."-Toshiro chuckled as to not offend A.

"You will have to wear these lenses, sir. We can't let the villagers know about your Byakugan."-Mabui then handed over to him the lenses. "Lenses?"-Toshiro thought as he picked them up. "Will this really work?"-he thought as he put them on. 

"Do I look different?"-He asked when he turned around to his teammates. 

"Your eyes... look smaller and well, brown."-Yumiko described his appearance. 

"You look like a normal kid now."-Ronin added. 

"Thanks, I guess."-Toshiro said. 

"Don't worry silly kids, we will get the coolest mission."-Killer Bee rapped to his team. 

"You will get a baby sitting mission."-A said.

"Why can't we get detective missions like Darui's team?"-Killer Bee complained. 

"You know already that you are not allowed to leave the village. Your team is not the special program one too. You are only allowed D rank missions, this is what you agreed to when you became their leader."

"But-"-Killer Bee tried to protest but got quickly got cut off from A.

"Enough! Now go do your mission."-A angrily commanded him, Killer Bee just accepted it and went back to his team.

"It is what it is..."-Karui bitterly commented. 

"Let's go."-Darui told his team and so they left the Raikage's office. After that they went to the village's gate, ready to leave for their first mission. 

"Everyone here?"-Darui asked as he appeared behind them. 

"Yeah..."-Toshiro answered. 

"Alright then, team 1."-and so they made their way to Silverfang village.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When going to Omoi's wiki page I realised that he was 16 during Part 2 of Naruto, aka he is the same age as my characters/team 7 etc. So I put them in the chapter last minute alongside a 3rd member, since in canon only Omoi and Karui were stated to be Bee's students. Ankoku is a last minute addition, but I am basically making shit up as it goes so it's nothing new. Even though I have already planned out the 7 Deadly Sins, some of the arcs and fights, everything is up to change. Atleast I have *some* plan hahaha. Could be worse. 
> 
> I am going to be honest this chapter was kind of boring/short but next one will be more interesting. I hope it turns out well. Peace.


	5. Darui vs The Deadly Sin!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team 1 embark on their first ever mission, but will this truly be just an ordinary robbery? Perhaps it's time for the special program kids to showcase their abilities as well as Darui, of course.

"How much longer until we get there?"-Ronin complained after an hour of walking. 

"Just a bit more."-Darui answered.

"Should we read the instructions now?"-Yumiko asked as she opened the scroll that Mabui gave them. "It says that jewelry has gone missing for the past 2 days throughout the city, 40 so far."

"To steal so much in just 2 days. He wasn't caught too, is this really the doing of a normal thief?"-Toshiro asked. 

"Nothing out of the ordinary if you ask me."-Ronin said. 

"I know you kids want to fight other ninjas, but that is an ordinary investigation mission. Nothing like that will happen today."-Darui reassured them. 

"Hey! Isn't that the village?"-Ronin enthusiastically asked. 

"Seems like it."-Yumiko answered. 

And thus they made their way into the village.

"Hello. We must talk with the village's head. Do you know where he is?"-Darui asked a civillian who was just passing by. 

"Hyousuke? He went to the diner to eat."-the man answered and pointed to a building with a "Delicious Bites!" sign. 

"That's a corny name."-Ronin jokingly said as Team 1 entered the diner, it had about 5 round wooden tables, 4 to 5 chairs each. Not the cleanest of all diners, but nothing shocking. There was also a bar where 2 young people were sitting and loudly chatting.

"Excuse me, do you know where Hyousuke is?"-Darui approached the 2 young men. 

"That's me. What is it?"-the one sitting on the left answered as he turned towards Darui. 

"Could we talk somewhere else? We are the team sent from the Hidden Cloud village."

"Oh, of course! I am a bit busy now, could we meet at my house at... 15:00 pm? It's the big one at the northeast part of the village. I am sure you will figure it out."-he answered. 

"OK. Let's go, kids."-Darui commanded his team. 

"How rude of him! To dismiss us like that."-Ronin complained. 

"How dull..."-Darui thought as he left the diner. 

"Should we ask people around?"-Yumiko asked. 

"Nothing else to do."-Darui said as they started walking down the street. 

They started asking around, most of them saying they just woke up to their belongings missing. A grandma was really angry about it though. 

After a while they split up in 2 groups. Darui and Ronin in one, Toshiro and Yumiko in another. The 2 Genins stumbled on a rather large person, kind of fat, sitting on the ground. In front of him there were a bunch of jewelry neatly put on a small carpet. 

He was wearing a red fez on his head, baggy trousers and a loose coat without a shirt, which was revealing his big belly. 

"Hello, sir! Have you heard about the recent missing jewelry?"-Yumiko asked him. 

"Of course I have! I came here this week to sell my jewelry only for some of them to get stolen by some fucker. I heard the same happened all over the village. I was so mad, I wanted to leave immediately, but since some people now don't have jewelry I thought they will come buy from me. Instead such stigma was made around it that no one even dared get close to me."-the man explained frustrated. 

"Thank you, sir! I hope we find the thief quickly."-Yumiko reassured him. 

"Are you shinobi? What are such young kids doing here, this place is dangerous. This can't be the works of a normal thief."-the man explained.

"What do you mean by that?"-Toshiro asked all of a sudden, up until now staring at children playing on the street. 

"You haven't heard? Some people have even made conspiracy theories that the head of the village is behind it. After all, only he would be this knowledgable on the village to be able to steal everything without a trace. There are rumours that the young man got shinobi training as a kid, back when the village was rich enough to afford it. Since the civillians of the Land of Lightning are forced to pay such high taxes to maintain the constant militarisation by the Hidden Cloud village, many live in poverty. Many of the jewelries that the people had were rather cheap or passed down by their ancestors. The head of the village may have gone into debt too since he lives such a lavish lifestyle, why wouldn't he make a deposit from the villagers, am I right? HA-HA-HA."

"Interesting, thank you."-Yumiko thanked the man and then left. 

"What do you think?"-Toshiro asked her.

"The same as you, we should talk with Darui."

"It will soon be 15:00. We have to go to the meet up point."

Team 1 met up in front of the big mansion, which they correctly assumed was Hyousuke's. Yumiko had already explained to Darui what the man told them when they got there. 

"Hi! Sorry for back then, I was talking with an old friend. Please come in."-Hyousuke welcomed them into his house. 

"We don't have a lot of time. What is going on in this village?"-Darui asked Hyousuke immediately, who sighed as his smile disappeared. 

"The truth is that I have reasons to believe this is the doing of a shinobi. We weren't sure so we didn't file that in the report and to be honest, we didn't have the money to afford a B or A mission."-Hyousuke answered honestly.

"Ugh... do you expect us to help you if you aren't even honest?"-Ronin asked annoyed.

"Ronin!"-Yumiko shouted. 

"What? It's the truth. Besides how do we know he isn't the thief? You said it yourself, people assume he is behind this!"

"What? That's not true though. I was at the diner during the theft of the jewelry. I swear, it's not me."-Hyousuke pleaged.

"Kids, it's fine. This isn't the first time this has happened. What's important is finding the robber. We will figure out the price later. Hyousuke, do you have an idea where the robber will strike next?"-Darui calmed down everyone. 

"The entire south section of the village has been robbed. He would probably rob the northeast or northwest parts."

"Then it's decided. Let's rest for now, then we will patrol the city at night."-team 1 then left to eat and rest, Ronin and Toshiro playing with the shape shifting toy. 

"Sensei, do you have another one?"-Ronin asked. 

"No, this is the only one I know about. A swordsmith gifted it to me when I was a bit older than you."-Darui explained. 

"Where is he now? Maybe we can ask him for another one."-Ronin asked. 

"He passed away 10 years ago. He was a great swordsmith, in fact those swords you carry were created by him."

"WHAT!?"-Ronin asked suprised. 

"Most swords in the Hidden Cloud village were of his creation. Including mine. He was a perfectionist to say the least. He started disappearing 10 years ago, always talking about the perfect sword, his greatest creation. He talked about meeting with strangers who could help him create that sword. In the end he went missing one day. We searched far and wide for him, but in the end we presumed him dead. Even though he was a weird guy, I used to like him as a kid. He liked to praise me about my skills as a swordsman. Maybe if we were more careful and saw the signs from the beginning we would have been able to prevent it, but it is what it is."-Darui nostalgically narrated. 

"Sensei... did you know my dad?"-Ronin asked him directly, which suprised him for a second.

"It's nearly 22:00. It's time we go patrol."-Yumiko cut them off. 

"Shit. It's already time?"-Ronin complained as he got up. 

"Let's go over the rules again. If you notice the thief, you have fire off the signal. No engaging him, no matter what happens. You got that?"-Darui instructed them as they all placed their hands on top of each other. "Let's go then."

And so team 1 went to patrol the north part of the village. Darui had to patrol the top left part, paticularly where Hyousuke was. Yumiko was down left, Ronin top right, Toshiro down right. Two hours had passed since they started patrolling, nothing yet had happened. 

It was 00:00.

"No signs of a thief so far. *Yawn*, damn how I want to go to sleep already."-Ronin thought to himself when he noticed a house had lit up it's lights. Pretty normal but he went to check it just in case since he had nothing else to do. Through the window he saw a woman holding a knife pointing to a man. So Ronin stormed in right through the window with his swords pulled out. 

"Agh!?"-the woman screamed as the man picked up the knife from her hands and pointed it against Ronin, while standing in front of her, protecting her. 

"Wait... weren't you pointing the knife towards him?"-Ronin asked confused. 

"What? We were practicing what to do in case a thief gets in. What do you think you are doing, kid?"-the woman explained furiously. 

"I'm so sorry. I will pay for the windows, I am really sorry."-Ronin told them while exiting the house, the couple behind him still cursing at him. 

"Damn it! I really messed up."-he thought while jumping back to a roof.

"Agh! A thief!"-he heard a scream coming from down the street. There was no doubt about it, this must be the thief. He jumped between the roofs until he got close to the screaming. It was coming from the house in front of him. 

He broke through the door with a kick and started running down the hallway until he saw a woman running towards him. 

"What's going on?"-he asked. 

"Run, kid!"-the woman screamed as from the darkness of the hallway a large figure got closer. 

"Get behind me!"-Ronin shouted as he got in front of her. Then the large figure jumped above him and started walking with all of his limbs on the roof like a spider. 

"You are not getting away!"-Ronin bravely shouted as he started chasing the thief, who fell to the floor and ran through the door outside.

"Shit! I can't let him escape. I don't have time for the signal."-Ronin thought as he started producing lightning release around his legs. 

"Lightning Release: Partial Chakra Mode"-he started getting faster and faster until he caught up to the thief and stroke him with his swords, but his opponent turned around and pulled out a sword from his mouth, their swords clashing. 

"Who is this? Big and fat, looks like the guy who Toshiro talked about."-Ronin thought as he applied lightning release to his sword which started cutting through his enemy's sword. 

"HA-HA-HA, you are not a normal kid, are you?"-his opponent asked as he pulled out from the clash.

"What?"-Ronin asked as he started exchanging blows with the man, then coated his legs in lightning release and dodged his vertical attack, counter attacking him in the process.. 

"Unholy Surgery"-he stabbed his swords into his opponent in parallel. Since they had 2 tips they were't able to completely pierce him. The lightning started going through the 4 tips, forming a rectangle of lightning within his body. 

"To be able to cut my sword and pierce me, you are truly extra-ordinary."-the large figure explained with a smile.

"You are dead!"-Ronin shouted as the lightning started going through all of his organs, killing him from the inside. "My swords may not be able to pierce through easily, but even a tiny bit inside and you are done for."-Ronin announced.   
His opponent then turned into stone and crumbled into ashes.

"What? Was this an earth clone? Where's the real one then?"-Ronin looked around. "Damn it, I forgot to fire the signal. Might as well now."-Ronin then pulled out a small ball from his pocket and threw it in the air, when it reached a certein height it suddenly exploded into different colours, the gas being able to be seen from the other side of the village. 

"It looks pretty."-he thought as he watched the signal go off, but then realised another bomb exploded shortly after his, coming from where Toshiro was. After a minute a second one exploded from Yumiko's sector. 

"There too? What's going on?"

Now we are going back to 00:00. This time from Toshiro's prospective. 

"No signs of a thief yet..."-Toshiro thought as he was shape shifting his plastic toy. "Byakugan!"-he activated it just in case to look around. "Nothing unusual... no, below me!"-he thought as he quickly realised something was moving through the ground. 

The large figure then started getting out of sight, so Toshiro started chasing after him. After a while the figure dug itself out in the middle of the street, realising that he was being chased down. 

"It's you after all."-Toshiro examined his opponent, no doubt about it, it was the jewelry seller from earlier that day. 

"Mr. Detective, huh?"-the man mocked him.

"But why? Why would you lie about the whole thing?"-Toshiro asked his opponent as he looked down from the roof top, the moon behind him shining brightly in contrast to the rather dark streets, deprived from any lightning. 

"Fire Style: Blazing Fireball"-the merchant waved the hand signs and produced quite a bit of fire, which Toshiro dodged and then landed to the ground. 

"Damn it! I can't use my Wind Release in a clash with his Fire Style."-Toshiro thought as he teleported the trident from his back to his right hand and charged towards the enemy. 

"Earth Style: Mud Swamp"-his enemy waved the hang signs and then put his hands on the ground, which transformed it into mud. Toshiro jumped in the air to avoid the swamp, but his opponent then started shooting something out of his mouth without waving hand signs. 

"What's this?"-Toshiro thought as he sliced it with his trident and then threw it behind his opponent. "Is this spider web?"-he teleported behind his opponent and threw 3 shurikens towards him. 

His enemy turned around and spouted more web balls which clashed with the shurikens. Toshiro then jumped over him, leaving the trident behind him. "Wind Style: Air Bullets."-he waved the hand signs mid air, exactly above his enemy. He then exhaled tiny bullets that clashed with the giant spider web that his opponent created. The Hyuuga landed on the ground and charged in to use his gentle fist. The thief sent another big spider web towards Toshiro, this time it was going to immobolise him when he came into contact with it. 

"It has chakra running through it. Perhaps I can..."-Toshiro thought as he focused chakra in his hand in the form of a neddle and cut through it. 

"Fuck! This kid is good."-the man then pulled out a sword from his mouth and rushed towards Toshiro. He tried to stab him but right before his sword reached him Toshiro teleported away. 

"Where is he?"-the jewelry seller thought as he turned around, to see Toshiro right behind him. 

"Eight Triagrams Thrity-Two Palms"-Toshiro then stroke his chakra points. "2 strikes, 4 strikes, 8 strikes, 16 strikes!"-his opponent got continously pushed back from the force until he tripped down from the last 16 strikes into the mud and turned into ash. 

"Earth Clone? Where is the original then? Should I worry Darui with this..."-Toshiro thought until he noticed a signal coming from where Ronin was. "Is he fighting against a clone as well? The orders were clear though, I should signal this."-Toshiro then threw his ball in the air, which exploded in various colours. 

After that another signal exploded in Yumiko's sector. "There too? What's the meaning of this..."-Toshiro thought as he put his trident on his back. 

It's 00:00, this time from Yumiko's prospective. 

"How boring."-Yumiko thought as she looked at the moon, it was a beautiful night in her eyes. The starry night barely lit up the village, making it hard for her to patrol, with huge clouds closing in with each other, it was soon going to rain. 

Then something suddenly emerged from the rooftop behind her, breaking through it and the wood debris flying all over the place. It was as loud as it could get, so many villagers went outside to check what was happening. 

Yumiko turned around and saw the jewelry merchant from earlier that day, holding a sword in his hands. She quickly dodged his attack by jumping off of the roof and landing to the ground, quickly followed by her opponent. 

She threw her needles at him, which he successfuly deflected with his sword. "Good."-she thought as she magnetised her needle and threw it behind him, his sword starting to get pulled towards her needle. 

"What's going on?"-he thought as he strenghtened his grip so that the sword doesn't fly towards it. His physical strenght was good enough to move around the sword even when pulled by the Magnet Release. 

"Wind Style: Breakthrough"-she waved the hand signs and exhaled the wind out of her mouth, the man let go of his sword and waved hand signs himself. 

"Fire Style: Blazing Fireball"-the fire jutsu clashed with the wind style jutsu, making it even stronger. 

"Shit!"-Yumiko thought as she stepped backwards, this way she could buy herself some time to wave the hand signs. 

"Earth Style: Mud Wall"-she placed her hands on the ground and a wall emerged from the ground. The fire jutsu was strong, it chipped away some of the wall, but it wasn't able to completely break it. Because of the smoke created from the clash her opponent couldn't see where she was. 

"Earth Style: Multiple Earth Golems"-the man produced 2 golems from the ground which jumped behind her mud wall to attack her. So after the smoke went away he saw her running away from them. 

"Clear shot."-he thought as he produced a giant web from his mouth and cought her with it. "One down."-he thought as he pulled out a sword from his mouth and stabbed her with it, but then she crumbled into durt. "Huh?"

She then emerged from the ground behind him and stabbed him with 2 needles in his throat. She had made the earth clone when he wasn't able to see from the smoke/wall and dug herself into the ground. His body then crumbled into dirt as well. 

"An earth clone as well?"-she then turned around to check if the real body was somewhere around.

"Everyone, go back in your house. Everything is fine."-she shouted to the villagers, who had watched the fight.

Then she saw the signal from Ronin's sector. 

"There as well?"-she thought as she saw another one fire off from where Toshiro was. "All 3 of our sectors got attacked at the same time. This has had to been planned, why though? It's perhaps a distraction. The enemy might want to go to Darui's sector, so he is bringing his attention towards us. Should I send my signal... please figure this out, Darui..."-she concluded as she threw her ball in the sky. 

"All 3 of them... I can't go help them all. Damn it! What should I do... this wasn't the plan. The idea was that there will be only 1 thief. I can't leave my sector now that someone might come here. The kids are in danger... damn it."-he rambled in his head as he patrolled over the sector, most often than not just staying around Hyousuke's mansion. 

Then he went inside the house to ask the head of the village things directly. 

"What's going on? Wasn't it supposed to be just 1 thief?"-Darui asked. 

"What? It is 1 thief."-Hyosuke answered while going through a box of his belongings. 

"Then why were my students attacked all at the same time? Clones? And why would he? Distract me?"

"I don't fucking know! I called you to deal with it, not me."

"You lied in your report about your mission. This isn't a normal thief. And I have a weird 7th sense telling me that he isn't a normal ninja too."-Darui then looked over to Hyousuke, who froze in place. 

"What do you mean by that?"

"I have a feeling you are hiding something from us, something you don't want us to know."

"Like what?"

"That's also what I am wondering. The rumours about you are suprisingly detailed, from the looks of things your motives are clear too. I have no evidences, nor am I good at this stuff, but you need to tell me everything you know so I can help you."-Darui explained as the head of the village found a key in that box, stared at Darui for a moment, thinking what he should do next and told him. 

"To be honest, you are right. I guess it's time for you to know the truth."-Hyousuke said and then a big man broke through the walls of the room, storming in with 2 swords in his hands. It was none other than the jewelry seller, who Toshiro and Yumiko had spoken with.

Darui quickly pulled out his sword and clashed it with the man, who then smirked as 4 new hands grew from his body, about to grab Darui. The Raikage's right hand backed up and quickly examined his opponent, who then pulled out 4 more swords from his mouth. He was now holding 6 swords in his 6 hands, about to viciously cut Darui to pieces. 

"What a turn of events..."-he thought as he charged in towards the Jonin. 

"What's your name?"-Darui asked as they started clashing their swords. 

"HA-HA-HA. You won't like the answer either way, so why not? It's Gluttony of the 7 Deadly Sins."-he then swung his lower 2 swords horizontaly, Darui managed to barely jump over them, then Gluttony slashed with his 4 other ones, which Darui deflected with his sword and got pushed back. 

"This turned out to be much worse than we thought..."-he said while clashing his sword with his. "I will put an end to this."-he then became quicker due to his body flicker technique and cut all 3 of Gluttony's right hands, who screamed in pain. 

"Bastard."-he grunted as he grew new ones from his body and then threw his 3 other swords at Darui, which he dodged. 

"Gotcha!"-the Deadly Sin shouted as Darui stepped over web that Gluttony had set up during their fight. 

"What? How did I not notice this?"-he thought as Gluttony then waved hand seals with all 6 of his hands. The first pair made a hand seal, then the second pair made another and the third one finished it. Using all 6 of them allowed him to perform ninjutsu much faster than he would usually do, only problem being that he was already slow with forming hand seals. Which allowed Darui to put his sword in his sheath and waved hand seals himself.

"Fire Style: Blazing Fireball"-Gluttony performed it at the same time as Darui's "Water Style: Water Formation Wall". Thus both of the jutsu clashed at the same time. 

"Black Lightning Mode"-Darui then coated himself in black lightning which cut through the sticky web he was standing on and charged towards Gluttony, who pulled out 6 swords from his mouth to try and protect from Darui, but it was futile.

Darui simply cut through the swords, since his black lightning sword made it way sharper than normal ones, even though Gluttony's were made from his own special hard spider web. 

"You have regenerative abilities, right? Regenerate this!"-he then focused all of the lightning in his left palm and formed a panther.

"Lightning Release: Black Panther"-the panther then formed completely and jumped towards Gluttony, demoloshing him during impact. Smoke from the impact covered the whole scene.

"Where's Hyousuke?"-Darui thought as he sheathed his sword and turned his back, but then a spider web ball went flying towards him from the smoke, which he dodged at the last moment.

"He's still alive?"-Darui exclaimed as he turned around towards the smoke, which disappeared after a while and revealed Gluttony had become bigger, his face full of spider eyes and his spider mouth dripping in disgusting liquid, probably poison. 

"Thank god I ate the soul before I got hit from that panther..."-he thought as he looked around and then jumped towards Darui. 

"Water Style: Water Formation Wall"-Darui waved the hand seals and produced water from his mouth which stopped Gluttony from getting close to him. 

"Lightning Style: Wave of Inspiration"-while the water style jutsu was still active he was able to wave more hand seals and electricute the water wall. 

"Why am I not strong enough!? Why am I not stronger. After all he is still better than me. How? Why? Why can't I defeat him!?"-Gluttony went into a crisis inside his head as he got pushed backwards.

"What are you after? What is a Deadly Sin doing here?"-Darui started asking him as Gluttony punched the ground in frustration. 

"Why? You ask why? As if I will tell shit like you. After I am done with you I will devour that traitor Hyousuke and your students, then the entire village. You will see... yes you will see. I will become the strongest. Everyone will see!"-he shouted as he stood up and prepared his final attack.

"This is it..."-Darui thought as he was now getting tired from the fight. He was reaching his limits in terms of chakra and his body was now strained from all the fighting. 

Gluttony started getting bigger and bigger, the poison falling from his mouth started dripping to the ground. "Earth Style: Multiple Earth Clones"-he then placed his hands on the ground and created around 8 clones, each one surrounding Darui in a circle. They started preparing a giant web from their mouths, coated in poison, which was connected between all 9 above Darui, about to fall on top of him.

"So it has come to this..."-Darui thought as he waved his hand seals. "Storm Release: Laser Circus"-he then created a few lightnings that started cutting through the entire web in different spots and then headshotted each clone precisely. 

"No! This can't be real! After all I did..."-Gluttony froze in place as all lightnings came towards him, no way for him to stop all of them or dodge them. The lightnings cut through all 6 of his hands and legs, the final one piercing his heart, which immediately started regenerating, tissue by tissue. Gluttony's body then miserably fell to the ground, still alive. 

"He is still breathing..."-Darui thought as he got closer to him, his limbs slowly regenarating even though he was at his death bed. Tears started falling down from Gluttony's eyes, sobbing quitely at his defeat, the reason for which Darui couldn't understand. 

"I failed you... mom, dad..."-Gluttony thought as his life started tashing through his memory like a movie. 

"I was a very weak child, had practically no muscle mass and I was extremely thin. I could barely lift a cup of water."-he narrated his movie. 

"Ito, are you sure you want to become a ninja?"-my mom asked me when I was 5 years old. I couldn't really understand her question at the time or why she doubted me, so I simply smiled and confirmed it. But reality soon brought me back down to earth. 

I was the worst student in the academy in the Hidden Stone Village. The other kids bullied me, my teachers refused to hold back the class because of me. 

"Just drop out, loser! I am tired of having to wait at every exercise because of you."-a kid complained to me. 

"I can try! If I try hard enough I can accomplish anything!"-I answered as a foolish kid. Even though I hoped this is true, I only received a beating from this. My father thought I was a failure, beating me from time to time and wishing I had not been born.

"Don't cry mom. I will become strong and protect you... I promise you."-I reassured my mom when she was silently crying during the night. She used to hug me gently and say "I'm so sorry Ito."-while she was barely able to catch her breathe from all the crying. 

She died from an infection when I was a teenager and my dad abandoned me shortly afterwards. I had failed my entrance exams too many times, not being able to even graduate. 

"I'm so sorry mom."-I cried at her graveyard when I was starving during my homelesness phase, I didn't have a job neither could I afford to eat. 

One night I strolled outside of the village, not sure myself why. "You want to be stronger? Come with me, I will grant all of your wishes."-that faithful night that man convinced me to come with him. He experimented on me, eventually applying a rare kekkei genkai on me to change my body to that of a spider. He gave me training, he gave me my body, while that woman gave me the soul in case of emergency. I ate so many people to become stronger, I finally had the body to be strong, yet I lost. Why... why... why am I always the loser."

"I met Lust when I joined, that fool had everything from birth. He was rich, spoiled, noble, handsome, yet he always wanted more. Turned into a barbarian just to extend his riches. I hated him the most in the group because of his weakness, even though that man claimed we live hand by hand. Gluttony is a sin that comes from Lust... and I ended the same way as him. The loser... why."

"The strong rule this world, the weak rule their delusions. Does this world have mercy towards weaklings, did I really become stronger..."

"You are not a loser."-he heard a known voice above him. Gluttony's eyes widened as he saw his mom.

"I'm sorry, Ito."-she gently hugged his head as they both continued to cry and in Gluttony's mind he started transforming back to his old self, his weak and thin kid body. 

"Mom... I'm so sorry. I just wanted to make you and dad proud... I wanted to be strong..."-Ito could barely talk as he hiccuped from all the crying. 

"It's fine... we will be reunited again. Even if we go to hell, I would be the happiest person, because I will be with you."-she looked into his eyes and softly smiled, as they both started turning into spiritual dust in his mind, going to the outer world together.

His body then stopped regenerating, he had given up on this world. He was now happily going to the outer world with his mom, hand by hand.

"Huh? He died..."-Darui noticed as he got up. "He could have regenerated from it like he did from the Black Panther..."

"UGH!"-Darui grunted in pain as a blade pierced him from behind. "What the hell..."-he thought as the man behind him pulled the blade out and let Darui drop on his knees to the ground, his wound bleeding. 

"This couldn't have went better."-Hyousuke's voice was heard as he walked over to Gluttony and picked up a key from his pocket, Darui barely being able to open his eyes to see what was happening. 

"You... why?"-Darui asked and dropped to the ground on his stomach, no longer being able to stand up on his knees.

"When Gluttony first appeared in the village I was able to find out about his identity. So after the first mass roberry I confronted him directly about it, of course I promised I would find him what he wanted. He eventually confessed that there is a really important amulet in my village, that is worth more than I could imagine. Since then I was able to find the key to a secret room in my mansion, that was hidden in my dad's room, while he found the key for the safe. Today we were supposed to meet up and get the amulet, he probably thought he was controlling me. The truth is that I made sure to send a request for a C rank mission to the Hidden Cloud Village exactly when your team was available, since I knew there won't be any other Jonin in the Cloud who would be able to defeat Gluttony. Knowing the right people has it's benefits."-Hyousuke proudly explained as he opened a room behind his chair in the hall they were with his key. 

"I explained to Gluttony that I was pressured by the village to request help and that people will get suspicious if I didn't. I could afford a higher rank mission, but I knew you would only accept a C rank one. Gluttony didn't even know that you were leading those brats' group until recently when I told him where to attack your students."-Hyousuke then walked down the room until he found the safe and opened it. 

"Bastard..."-was all that Darui could mutter as he watched Hyousuke take out the bracelet with a white gem in the center of it from the safe. 

"Beautiful... I will fix all of my financial problems with this single bracelet."-an idiotic smile shone throughout his face as he walked out from the room. He then whistled and 3 men appeared, waering all black. Mercenary missing nins to be precise. 

"You, kill the cloud shinobi."-Hyousuke then pointed to Darui and the ninja jumped towards him with a kunai in his hand. But right before he could land a trident broke through the window and pierced his shoulder. Then Toshiro teleported to it and pulled the trident out of the ninja, who landed to the ground bleeding and in deep pain. 

Ronin then kicked through the doors of the mansion and ran towards Darui. 

"Darui sensei! Are you ok?"-Ronin went over to Darui and checked his pulse, he was still alive. "Thank god!"

"Shit! You, come with me, the rest will deal with the brats."-Hyousuke shouted and started running towards the exit. 

"I have to go after them!"-Toshiro though but quickly got confronted by the 2nd ninja as they both clashed their weapons. Ronin then jumped to help Toshiro but got attacked by the wounded one. 

"Looks like we will have to leave it for Yumiko."-Ronin smirked as he coated his swords in lightning and continued attacking the ninja. 

"This way!"-Hyousuke shouted as he and the ninja sprinted down the hallway. As they were about to exit through the mansion's gate an explosion went off. 

"Did you hear it?"-Ronin asked Toshiro as he slashed his opponent in the chest. 

"Looks like her plan worked."-Toshiro responded while teleporting behind his enemy and using his Eight Triagrams Thrity-Two Palms technique. 

"We should go catch up with her."-Ronin put his swords back on his back and started running towards the exit. 

"I will stay with Darui!"-Toshiro shouted as Ronin sprinted towards Yumiko. 

"What's going on?"-Hyousuke said frustrated as Yumiko appeared from the ground and threw her needles at the ninja, who dodged them at the last second but still got scratched a bit on his left cheek. 

"Damn it! Break through the walls so I can escape! I will keep going."-Hyousuke ordered the ninja who immediately did as he was ordered to and used an Earth Style jutsu to move it. 

Yumiko then waved her hand seals and placed them on the ground. "Magnet Release: Deadlock"-this technique allowed her to magnetise the entire surface of the ground withing a certein area and all that had been magnetised would get pulled to it. Since her needles had scratched the ninja he got magnetised and immediately got pulled to the ground. 

Hyousuke in the meantime ran outside into the village, heading for the exit. Since Yumiko's technique needed her to kneel down and touch the ground she couldn't go after Hyousuke or move to finish off her opponent. She had to focus all of her chakra into magnetising the ground. 

"Yumiko! Are you ok?"-Ronin shouted as he got closer. 

"Forget about me, go after Hyousuke. He went through this hole!"-Yumiko angrily commanded him. 

"Lightning Release: Partial Chakra Mode"-he cloaked his legs in lightning and started sprinting through the village's dark alleys, now raining as well. 

"Where is he? I can't find him!"-Ronin thought as he continued to search for him. 

Yumiko was struggling with keeping the technique running. It was fairly complicated and she herself wasn't sure if she should use it. 

"Damn it, if I shoot the needles from my throat the jutsu might break... it's so hard to maintain it. And I can't let him escape. Motherfucker, should I risk it?"-she thought as a sweat started running down her forehead. 

"Fuck it."-she announced as she concentrated her chakra even more and shot a needle from her mouth, which obviously suprised the ninja. Non the less he spat out a ball himself that when it came into contact it exploded in gas.

Eventually the gas reached Yumiko and she started gagging and coughing from it, which unconcentrated her, the jutsu broke and the ninja ran away.

"Found him!"-Ronin thought as he saw Hyousuke outside of the village in front of a cliff. 

"I can't jump to the other side..."-Hyousuke thought but then heard Ronin running towards him and turned around to face him. 

"Give up, Hyousuke! Hand over yourself."-Ronin shouted as he got closer and closer to him. 

"No... no, no, no, no, NO! Not after all I did. I can't spend my life in prison. What's the point of life if I live in misery?"-Hyousuke cried out and then turned over to the cliff, Ronin quickly realising what was going to happen. 

"No, don't!"-the Genin shouted as a last attemp, but Hyousuke had already made up his mind and jumped towards his doom. Ronin watched as he was falling, just in case he managed to survive and escape. But no, he truly only wanted to end it there. 

Ronin then laid down to the ground, the cold rain dropping on his face, thinking about what had just happened. "This was... not what I expected from my first mission..."-Ronin laughed all of a sudden, even though he had clashed with the life of a ninja on his first ever mission. 

"This could have gone better..."-was what Yumiko thought when she started running outside.

"Ronin, are you alive?"-she shouted when she saw him laying on the ground. 

"Yeah, are you worried about me?"-he jokingly answered. 

"Fuck off."-she responded by jokingly kicking him lightly. "Where's Hyousuke?"

"He killed himself by jumping off..."-he answered as Yumiko peeked at the hole. 

"So he was behind the roberries, but why?"

"I don't know. We will have to ask Darui when he wakes up."-Ronin then stood up and they went back together to where Toshiro was. 

Toshiro had been watching over Darui, bandaged his wound with what he had but it was clear he wasn't in a good condition. 

"How is sensei?"-Ronin asked Toshiro when they came back in the mansion.

"He's unconscious, we will have to stay here for the night, what happened to Hyousuke?"-Toshiro explained. 

"Suicide."-Yumiko answered and started digging through his papers placed on his desk that was at the end of the room. "Bunch of loan documents..."-she thought. "A diary?"-she then opened the little notebook she had found but came to the realisation that hadn't been updated in weeks. 

"Anything important?"-Toshiro asked. 

"No..."

"Let's go check the other rooms, there should be bedrooms in here. We will sleep here for the night and... wait for Darui to wake up."

"Then what?"-Ronin asked. 

"Then we will go back to the village. Even if he can't walk there one of us could just bring back the trident to the village and Toshiro will teleport the rest of us."-Yumiko told her teammates and started checking the other rooms for bedrooms. 

"I wanted to be the leader..."-Ronin muttered as he started checking the other rooms as well. 

Team 1 stayed in the mansion for the night, even though Toshiro found it a bit weird to sleep there. In the morning they assigned Ronin to go back to the Hidden Cloud Village with the trident by 15:00, so that Toshiro can teleport the others to it. 

Ronin got to it by 13:00 and had to throughly explain the situation to Mabui as they waited for the rest to teleport. Once it became 15:00 Toshiro teleported Yumiko and Darui to the trident, which was placed in the hospital. Darui had already regained his consciousness but was still sent to a check up. 

After that they were welcomed in the hospital by Emiko, who had heard that Ronin came back. "Toshiro!"-she exclaimed when she saw Toshiro who ran towards her for a hug. 

"Mom, we did it."-he proudly announced, as he was now a Genin. 

"What happened? Why is Darui in such a bad condition?"-she asked as he saw the doctors transporting him to his room. 

"He fought a weird jewelry merchant, I am not sure as well..."-he answered, Emiko immediately sensing something wasn't right but decided to not continue the conversation. Toshiro had already went through what seemed like a serious mission, she didn't want to stress him out more. 

"I have made some cookies, want to try them?"

"Of course!"-he smiled as they both went back to their house. 

"See you later, Yumiko!"-Ronin shouted as he started walking back home as well. 

"Seeya..."-she though as she looked around, her father wasn't there to welcome her. She wasn't exactly suprised, just disappointed. Even though she made those happy moments in her mind, that perhaps her dad would do something nice like the other parents did, she still got disappointed that they didn't happen. 

"You should just stop, idiot. He is never going to be a normal dad."-a voice in her spoke. 

Non the less she went back home, where her dad was sitting on the floor while reading from a scroll.

"I heard what had happened to Darui, hopefully the mission will be changed to a higher rank one. If the other clans hear about this, we will definetely rise in their eyes. A Genin completing an A rank mission as her first one..."-he announced happily, or well, as happy as a person like him could get. "It's time for you to learn *that* jutsu."-he continued seriously. 

"Really?"-Yumiko asked shocked. 

"You are ready, it's time for the entire ninja world to see the might of the Yotsuki clan."

"Raikage-sama, Darui is in room 104."-Mabui told A as he walked into the hospital, everyone freezing up at the sight of his glory. 

"Lead me there."-he told Mabui as they made their way to the second floor and entered the room. 

"Raikage!"-Darui exclaimed when he walked in the room. 

"What the hell happened during the mission?"-A asked as he closed the door. 

"It's complicated, but what's important is who I fought. It was Gluttony of the 7 Deadly Sins."-he explained, A's eyes delating.

"What happened? Is he alive?"-he hurriedly asked. 

"No, I killed him."-Darui announced. "The head of the village, Hyousuke, killed himself too, him and Gluttony were after some amulet, Hyousuke was sure he would sell it for loads of money. Yumiko told me she went to check his corpse in the morning, but he was gone along with the amulet. Gluttony's is still in the mansion."

"What would the Deadly 7 Sins do with some amulet?"-A frustratingly said, trying to figure out what was going on. 

"I don't know, but both of them wanted it. And I have a feeling Gluttony didn't want it for the money."

"So do I... good, rest for now. This turned out to be much a harsher mission than we thought, an A rank mission."

"Goodbye, Darui-sama."-Mabui told him as she and the Raikage exited the room.

We will now go back to 03:00 am the same day. 

"He is dead..."-Envy muttered as he inspected the body. "To waste such a good life... what a tragedy."-he said as he pulled the bracelet out of his pocket. 

"Not even a scratch, this must be it."-he thought as he placed his hand on the body and teleported it back to a dark room.

"Did you find the amulet?"-a short woman asked him as she was cleaning up her desk. 

"Yes, it's here."-he then handed it to her, which she closely inspected. 

"This is it, I can feel it."-she said with a trembling smile and put it on the desk. "Where's the ring?"-she asked. 

"In the other hideout, A3. You still haven't seen it?"

"I'm a busy lady, Envy. You are the one who needed years to find it, even though Lust had already found it's location."

"He only found the village, not the location. Who would have thought it will be hidden in a chest burried into the ground, fuinjutsu plastered all around it."

"Whatever, you already know where you should be looking next, right?"-she asked with a grin on her face. 

"I never forget my missions."

"When is the meeting?"-she asked when she turned off the lamp on her desk. 

"Now."-he answered and put his hand on the floor, a circle forming around him and the grandma, another one next to them and one in front of them for that man. Three silhouttes then appeared in the circle next to them, as well as the man sitting in front of them. 

"Welcome. As some of you already know, Gluttony is dead. But he died while fulfilling his only goal, retrieving the amulet. Thus he will forever be remembered as a hero to our cause. There are only 5 Sins now, not a problem. I believe we can achieve our dreams together if we play our cards right. Let's all have a minute of silence for our great hero, Gluttony of the 7 Deadly Sins..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since last time the chapter was pretty short I made sure this one will be longer. I ended up covering the whole arc with this chapter, I wish I could slow down the pacing a bit, but it's kind of fitting for such a long multi chapter fic. 
> 
> Also I may or may not be focusing too much on Ronin lol. I just like him as a character I guess. 
> 
> The "Magnet Release: Deadlock" jutsu is actually something I planned way back, initially I wanted her to have an OC kekkei genkai- "Gravity Release". But I ended up sticking up with the canon and I honestly don't regret it. It's also canon for there being a clan/certein ninjas in the Hidden Cloud who have Magnet Release, aka just Toroi. 
> 
> The clan name "Yotsuki" is also canon in Naruto, if anyone remembers that ninja that Team Taka interrogated before attacking Bee, he mentioned to be part of a loyal "Yotsuki" clan. They were never mentioned again and I was too lazy to find a different surname for her so I just took that one and pretend Toroi is from the same one. 
> 
> I ended up using ALL of Darui's canon jutsus in the Gluttony fight, so from now on I will need to make up new ones, although that may be fun to do since there are only 2 Storm Release jutsus in canon. 
> 
> As for Toshiro's Wind Style, I just made it up since we don't know of any canon Wind Style jutsus except Rasenshuriken and Danzo's, who all have "vacuum" in their names. They were kind of strong though and I don't want Toshiro to be that OP for now, so I made my own "lower rank" Wind Style jutsus.
> 
> Next arc will be as most of you could probably guess Chuunin Exams arc, which I will have to probably rewrite to the bone since I have to force the Cloud teams too... somehow. Oh god, that would be fun :). I would probably need to reread some parts of that arc too... yay. 
> 
> That's all for this week my dear 3 readers, bye~~.


	6. Happy Birthday, Yumiko!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath of Gluttony's defeat and the preparations for the Chuunin exams.

The next day Darui sent a message to Toshiro to visit him in the hospital. The Hyuuga wasn't sure himself why, but he complied with it either way and visited him in the afternoon. 

"Toshiro, I am not sure if I am allowed to talk with you about this, but I thought you should know."-Darui started the conversation seriously. 

"What is it?"

"The ninja we fought yesterday, he wasn't an ordinary one. He was a Deadly Sin, Gluttony."-Darui explained. Toshiro's eyes widened, he didn't realise it but he also gasped, ultimately not being able to react with anything but a stone face. 

"Even the existence of the organisation is a top secret, the other villages don't know about it at all. But I thought it's important for you..."

"Thank you... I... thank you."-he stuttered a bit but simply thanked him in the end. 

"You can leave now, I can see you want to think this through, it's fine."-he reassured Toshiro, who simply thanked him again and left his room. 

"We... we did it. We are one step closer to achieving it... your, no, my dream. I wonder if you are happy now, if you are watching me from above, perhaps I won't know. I hope this is what you want from me, I want you to. Once this is over, I hope you can rest peacefully forever. Knowing you, you are tirelessly working even from above. If only I could spend more time with you... dad."-Toshiro thought while staring at the clouds, then looked at his palm which highlighted the 2 crescents and teleported him back to his room, where his trident was. 

Toshiro then went to the living room to tell Emiko about it, since he thought it's important for her to know as well. 

"I already know about this, Toshiro. I wanted to tell you about it today as soon as I learnt as well, but didn't know how to. I'm thankful Darui did it for me."-she explained when he tried to tell her about Gluttony, she was one of the few in the village who knew about the organisation. 

The following months Darui fully recovered and everything went back to 'normal', although it's fair to say that our cast's life was never normal. They started doing normal for Genins D rank missions and quickly finished all of them, nothing unexpected from Team 1, the special team. Other Genin teams in the Cloud Village quickly became jealous of their 100% success rate, but more importantly their A rank mission had become a hot topic among the villagers. 

"When are we going to get an interesting mission for once?"-Ronin complained as they entered the Mission Assignment Desk. 

"Not anytime soon..."-Darui answered. Even though he thought the missions were dull, he still liked spending some time with his team. It brought back memories from when he was a kid. 

"Darui-sama, don't forget about the meeting today."-Mabui told him as Team 1 entered the room. 

"Oh... yes."-he shook his head. 

"What meeting?"-Toshiro asked curiously. 

"It's about the Chuunin exams, your Jonin leader must reccomend your team for it to participate."-Mabui explained. 

"Huh, so soon?"-Yumiko pointed out. 

"It is what it is."-Darui muttered. 

"Since your Jonin leader must go to the meeting you will not be appointed a mission for today, just in case."-Mabui explained as she started to organize her desk. 

"So it's a free day..."-Toshiro thought. 

"Alright, kids. Go home."-Darui ordered them and disappeared from the room using his Body Flicker technique. 

"Damn it, he's fast."-Ronin thought as he left the room. "Do you have any other plans for today, Toshiro? We can go play Shogi."

"I don't know... I think I want to go home for today."-Toshiro answered. 

"OK then, byee."-Ronin said as Toshiro teleported back to his trident which was at home. 

"Wanna go play Shogi, Yumiko?"-Ronin then turned to her. 

"Forget it."-she answered coldly. "I will go train, see you tomorrow."-she then left the room, going to the training grounds. But when she got there she saw a tall guy wearing a leather jacket who was reading a small book in his hand. Once she got closer though, she realised that this is none other than her big brother. 

"Takeo? What are you doing here, fucker?!"-she shouted at him until he turned around to see her.

"Oh, here you are! Thought so, since you weren't at home. Hard working as always, heh?"-he announced happily, trying to hug her but she pushed him away. 

"What do you want? Wasn't it enough to leave us?"-she asked furiously. 

"Yumiko, you know it was a hard choice for me too, I didn't want to disappoint dad like that as well-"-he tried to explain but got cut off. 

"But you did! You knew you were the clan's bright chance and instead you retired early to become a shit writer!"

"I never wanted to become a shinobi, I can do whatever I want for a job and you neither dad can do anything about it, besides I left so suddenly because I knew this is what your response will be."

"Yeah, you knew that what you were doing was wrong, that's why you didn't tell me."

"It's not... fine, I just wanted to see my little sister for her birthday but if you insist."

"Birthday? As if you would care about it, where were you during my last 3 birthdays, dipshit?"

"I had work at the club, I was busy with the newspaper, I'm sorry."-he answered but they both stopped talking and instead just started at each other for a while, Yumiko's eyes being as furious as her dad's. 

"I know this can't quite make up for the last birthdays but..."-he handed her a box, which she tore apart only to find a book with the title "The Last Star" in it, the author's name being Yotsuki Takeo. She looked at it for a second but in the end threw it on the floor. 

"What are you doing?! Do you know how hard I had worked for it? It took me years to finally be happy with a story and publish it."

"Get your shit out of here, I don't want to see you nor do I want to read your fucking books. Is this why you left the village, the clan, our home. To write this nonsense?"

"It's not... it's not nonsense. Why did I even bother, I knew you would react this way. Both you and dad need to wake up for once, there's more to life than just being a shinobi."-he angrily commented by picking up the book from the ground, wiping off some dust from it and putting it back in his pocket along the other book he was reading. 

"This is why mom left, because she realised what a fucked up family we were."-he bitterly commented as he left. 

Takeo was never really a genius at being a ninja, yet everyone wanted him to be the chosen one. It was true that he had Magnet Release, but he was never anything special. He got into the special program team out of pure luck, since his specific generation had very few students, the competition was quite poor. His team couldn't pass the 2nd test of the Chuunin Exams and ultimately failed. After that he applied for retirement(which he was legally allowed without the consent of his parents) and left the village soon after. 

It was a complete emberassment for the Yotsuki clan, especially for his father. For all he cared was his happiness, he only really liked reading. Even though he wasn't a good writer, he was hardworking. He had spent the last years in the Land of Fire, where he edited a weekly newspaper. Many writers published their poems in it, which allowed him to read all of them. He eventually joined the club as well and spent time with a popular writer I.V. Natsume. Even though most club members disliked him for writing the same old novels about the great shinobi wars, many also respected him. 

Some made sure to point out that he should "move on", that they should progress literature. Yet he continued writing whatever he liked and most couldn't hide the fact that he was succesful, including the young Takeo who admired him. "The Last Star" was his first attempt to publish an original work, which Natsume had helped him with and had approved it.

The book didn't do well though, breaking through as a writer was hard, even for those participating in clubs and being active in general in the world of literature. Even though no one read his book, he was still proud of it. Something that Yumiko couldn't quite understand, as she was just mad at him for leaving when the clan needed him the most. 

Yumiko bitterly started training again, fired up as always if not more. Takeo wasn't going to discourage her from training one bit. 

Ronin on the other hand went to visit the graveyard where his parents had been burried. He was a frequent visitor, since he liked to talk with them about silly stuff, thinking that they heard him. He thought that if they could hear him, they would love to hear about his silly adventures, even though he would sometimes overplay the events. 

"And then I sliced the ninja in half with a single slash before he could even blink, saved Darui and captured the thief, it was awesome."-he passionately explained while showing with his hands and legs every event, exactly as it happened in his head. He then laid down on the ground and stared into the sky, smiling brightly at the thought that he would become the man in his dreams, the greatest swordsman in the world. 

"Gotta go now... byee."-he waved at the graves of his parents and went back home where he ate a sandwich and started playing around his room, not really sure what to do. "I have to meet up with Toshiro soon, but what to do until then..."-he thought as he looked at the clock in his room. "Pfff... nothing to do. Maybe I can finally read that Shogi book..."-he thought as he picked it up from the slumb of unorganised stockpiled things in his room. 

He curiosuly started reading it until he realised he was late for the meeting with Toshiro, he had spent hours reading it and didn't even comprehend it. He went to check himself in the mirror, fixing his pineapple like hair, checking to see if he has any pimples on his smooth black skin. Even in his everyday life he wore his old Hidden Cloud uniform, that his dad used to wear as a kid. His face was quite leniant, his eyes were brown, nothing special. He was sort of tall though for his age, around 160 cm. 

He quickly left his apartment and started running through the bridges, until he reached the shop where Toshiro was waiting for him. 

"Finally, I thought you had completely forgotten about it."-Toshiro commented as Ronin reached him. 

"Sorry, didn't pay attention. Did you already pick it?"

"No, I waited for your opinion."

Yumiko was staying till late at the training grounds, it was getting dark, 7 pm. She picked her bottle of water and started drinking from it, then threw it in the trash can and went back to the small building at the corner of the training grounds that was a place to rest after training. When she got in she turned the lights on only to see confetti in her face. 

"Happy Birthday!"-Ronin and Toshiro shouted happily as Toshiro held the cake they had bought from the shop alongside the confetti, which Ronin bursted into Yumiko's face. 

"We weren't sure if you celebrate your birthday, so we took matters to our hands!"-Toshiro explained as he gave Yumiko the cake. 

Even though she was mad at her brother just some hours ago, she was now rather touched by their gesture. To expect someone outside of her family to remember it, scrap it- everyone but her brother, was something she thought to be bizzare. Yet here they were, the team she had spent nearly a year with now, was her family, perhaps a happier one than her real one. 

"Is this... how it feels to have a happy family?"-she thought as she started to cry, the tears going down her beautiful face, coming from her heterochromiac eyes, left one was brown while the right one was blue. She never knew why, but her brother had the same eyes as her, just that it was reversed. Her hair was ombre, turning from brown to blond, seen in her neatly put ponytail. She wore a special uniform common to her clan, needles strapped around her arms, legs and throughout her entire body. The general colour of it being dark purple with black in some spots. 

It's not that her brother didn't have good intentions when he came back, she was more so mad at him since she always used to trust him, only for him to leave without a trace for 3 years. She thought that he didn't care for her as much as she thought, only conveniently appearing 3 years later for her birthday, it wasn't something for her to forgive with a simple present. 

"Is everyone here?"-A asked as he sat on his chair. 

"Yes, sir."-Mabui confirmed. 

"May the Jonin leaders come forth and announce their choices."-A continued. 

"As the leader of Team 1, I Darui, confirm that all three of my Genins are ready."-Darui said as he formed the hand seal of confrontation. 

"I, the vicious monster of the sea Killer Bee, confirm my little fish are ready."-Killer Bee formed the hand seal of confrontation while talking seriously, without rapping, even though it was evident that his speech wasn't properly formal. After him another Jonin leader refused to send his team to the Chuunin exams.

"Hmm, 2 freshly graduated Genin teams for the Chuunin exams... not bad."-A chuckled. "We look very promising this year, it's time to remind the other Hidden Villages about our military dominance."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tomorrow is actually my birthday, so I am happy to write about Yumiko's. I have so many ideas right now about her/her brother and the future of the fic in general. I am happy to be able to write down all of my ideas, even though I know my writing is extremely... bad. It's fun nontheless.


	7. The Chuunin Exams, Test 1!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team 6 and 1 go to the Hidden Leaf village, where the test will be held. There they will meet with all sorts of interesting ninjas, mostly enemies. Will they be able to pass the first test? And what's up with Toshiro's vision?

The day after Yumiko's birthday party Team 1 met up at the training grounds as usual, since that was their meeting point. 

"Yo."-Darui announced as he appeared behind them. 

"Damn, I still get suprised by how fast he is..."-Ronin thought as he turned around to greet him. 

"I reccomended all 3 of you for the Chuunin exams... not that I really had a choice, all special program teams are required to."-Darui explained as he gave them their application lists. "You will have to sign these up and give them to Mabui tomorrow. After that we will be travelling to the Hidden Leaf Village."

"Hidden Leaf? How should we... well, explain Toshiro's eyes?"-Yumiko asked as she picked her application list. 

"Well, he already has those contact lenses, although they don't cover up the veins. Maybe we will give him a mask... surely Mabui would have thought this out already. She will come up with something tomorrow."-Darui answered.

"My eyes..."-Toshiro thought as he stared at the application form.

Tomorrow Team 1 went to the Mission Assignment Desk where they all handed their application forms to Mabui, who quickly mentioned Toshiro's Byakugan. 

"It would be best to not use it in the exams if it's possible, although the competition is tough. Just in case though we ordered a special mask for you, young sir. It covers the parts of your face where your veins appear, alongside fuinjutsu to make sure it doesn't fall from your face, as well as a seal that makes it impossible for other Byakugan users to see through your mask. That we haven't tested yet, so we would like to do that right now, if it's possible of course."-Mabui explained as she put paint near her eyes and put the mask on. "Can you see through it?"-she asked as Toshiro activated his Byakugan. 

"No... I can't."-he answered as he tried focusing on it, only seeing a blurry black spot. 

"Perfect, along with your lenses no one should be suspicious."-she continued as she gave him the mask. 

"Why does he even need to wear it? Those are his eyes after all."-Ronin complained. 

"The Hidden Leaf Village have tried for decades to preserve the Byakugan within their own village, going to great lenghts to make sure the kekkei genkai doesn't fall into the hands of the other villages. What they mostly prepared for was in case an enemy tried to transplant the Byakugan to his eyes, so they made special seals that destroy the Byakugan upon a clan member's death. What they didn't take into account was... a natural born wielder of the Byakugan."-Mabui further explained. 

"It is what it is."-Yumiko sighed.

"It's fine... it atleast looks cool."-Toshiro said as he put the mask on.

After that Team 1 travelled alongside Killer Bee's Team 6 to another village in the Land of Lightning, from where they hopped up on a train to the Hidden Leaf village. Except that Killer Bee wasn't allowed to leave the village, so C had to take charge of the team.

"That kid again..."-Toshrio thought as he sat down next to Ankoku, the one who had put him in what seemed like genjutsu last time. 

"Long time no see, Ankoku."-Yumiko said as she sat down next to Toshiro, who was now sitting between them while Ankoku was next to the window. 

"I just... have to not look at him in the eyes."-Toshiro thought as he picked a bottle of water from his bag, which somehow managed to slip from his hand but was quickly cought mid-air by Ankoku without spilling out any water. 

"Oh, my bad. Thank you..."-he thanked him as he picked the water bottle from his hand and looked unintentionally towards him, Ankoku staring at him with his bright blue eyes, which he usually kept closed. 

A sharp noise was heard, everything around him started changing in colour and slowly melting, while no one was even aknowledging it. The sound was getting mumbled, as if it was getting consumed.

"Shit, I looked him in the eyes."-Toshiro thought as he jumped from his seat to the ceiling, focusing his chakra in his foot to stick on it.

"If I activate my Byakugan... I might be able to see through it."-he thought as he activated it, being able to see through the illusion. The Byakugan doesn't automatically break through genjutsu though, it just helps seeing through the illusion and your own chakra, which in hand helps you see which chakra points you need to focus to and circulate the chakra around to break the genjutsu. 

"Just focus... my chakra."-he thought as he disrupted his own chakra which completely broke through the genjutsu. 

"Toshiro, what are you doing? Get down here!"-Yumiko shouted as his hearing returned.

He quickly realised that he was drawing every passenger's attention towards him, so he quickly landed on the ground and sat back in his seat. 

"What were you doing?"-Yumiko scolded him as he tried to explain what had just happened. 

"It just... I... it's weird."-he stuttered. 

"You're weirder than I thought..."-she continued. 

After 3 more hours of travelling the two teams finally arrived in the Land of Fire, from where they travelled to the Hidden Leaf village on foot. 

"When we arrive there, we'll have to go check the hotel. Make sure you don't cause any problems there..."-Darui advised his team as they got near to their destination. 

"What if there are loads of strong Genins... what if I break a bone and have to retire... then a cute kunoichi from the Leaf will have to heal me... what if we get married... what if I don't want to have kids..."-Omoi muttered. 

"Get real, no kunoichi will fall for a twit like you. Much less one from another village."-Karui complained. 

"We can support each other during the exam... we're allowed to team up in case of a free for all exam."-Yumiko mentioned as she read a scroll that Mabui had given her, filled with rules and guidelines about the Chuunin exams. 

"The 3rd exam is the same every year, for that one you won't be able to team up."-C mentioned. 

"What do you mean by that?"-Ronin asked. 

"It's a 1 versus 1 match, you will have to fight against other Genins head on and depending on your performance, you may or may not get promoted to Chuunin exams. It's in a tournament style, if you lose you get eliminated from the competition and your opponent goes onto the next opponent. If you reach the final match though you will automatically get promoted to Chuunin. But even if you don't, there's always a chance you might get promoted."-C further explained. 

"I can see the village! We are nearly there!"-Ronin shouted as he saw the gates of the Hidden Leaf village. 

"About time..."-Darui sighed as they all entered the village, of course each one getting their passports checked.

"Hey you, masked kid. What's your surname?"-Kotetsu, a normal Chuunin from the Hidden Leaf Village asked him, as he was stationed with his best friend Izumo to the awfully boring mission to guard the gate. 

"I... don't have one."-Toshiro awkwardly answered. 

"Well... we can't really pass you then. Your passport isn't filled up."

"Toshiro, let's just write down Emiko's surname..."-Darui told him as he picked the pen and wrote on his passport 'Ishikawa'. It was Shoji's surname as well which Emiko received once they got married. 

"Alright... you can pass."-Izumo told them as he gave each one their passport. 

"Alright kids, go eat something while me and C report that we have arrived here. And don't do anything... naughty."-Darui warned the kids as they all split up, Team 1 and Team 6 eventually splitting as well.

"What can we even do here, seems so boring."-Ronin complained as they walked down the street, receiving some weird stares from the civillians who were suspicious of their headbands, since the Hidden Cloud's reputation wasn't the brightest around here. 

"This isn't a tourist destination, idiot."-Yumiko replied. 

"Then surely there must be other Genins we could talk with."-he proposed. 

"Anyone wanna eat? That seems like a ramen shop over there..."-Toshiro meantioned while they were passing through Ramen Ichiraku. 

"Ohh I am starving!"-Ronin shouted as they all sat down.

"Sorry, not enough places, kiddo."-a ninja said as he and 5 other ninjas were sitting at the shop. 

"Who are you calling a kid? Show yourself, coward."-Ronin replied. 

"Stop it, idiot! Darui already told us not to get in trouble."-Yumiko scolded him.

"You wanna fight?"-the ninja turned around, revealing a Hidden Mist headband on his forehead, and umbrellas sticking on his back. 

"You're asking for it-"-Ronin reached for his swords but Yumiko held his hands, preventing him from picking them and striking a serious look at him. 

"Haha... good that atleast one of you has the braincells to not fuck with me, you would've gotten in serious trouble if not for her."-the mist ninja laughed. 

"Shigure, that's enough. Let's not make a scene."-another ninja said while eating his ramen. 

"Shut up, Midare, you ain't the team captain here."-Shigure angrily replied. 

"Stop, or I will make you stop."-another one said, this time initiating what seemed like fear within Shigure. 

"Yes, Kaito..."-Shigure replied and quickly sat back to finish off his ramen. 

"Let's go."-Kaito then stood up and turned around, revealing a pretty long blue hair, brown eyes and a somewhat childish face. Quickly after him the other ninjas stood up and left the shop, exchanging mean looks with Team 1. 

"Jeesh, that guy was annoying."-Ronin complained as he sat down. 

"Even though we are at peace nowadays, the other villages are far from friendly with us. You shouldn't expect hugs and kisses from the other Genins."-Yumiko explained as her teammates ordered their food. 

"I know that... but is it really that hard to atleast respect each other."-Ronin sighed.

Meanwhile Team 6 was walking down the streets until Ankoku stopped and told his team he is going to tour the village on his own for a bit. 

"What are you on about?"-Karui exclaimed before he vanished. 

"He's going to get us in trouble..."-Omoi thought. 

Ankoku then ran around until he arrived at the outskirts of the village where he found a Leaf ninja training. 

"Excuse me, sir. Are you a Jonin?"-he asked. 

"No, I am a Chuunin. Why are you asking?"-the ninja asked while putting his kunais back in his pockets with which he was training up until now. 

"Oh, nothing. I just got lost, I wanted to ask for where I am supposed to go."-Ankoku answered while smiling and opened his eyes wildly, which immediately sank in the ninja's eyes, which in turn went pale. He was completely absorbed by Ankoku's genjutsu.

"Hmm... this was easier than I thought. This must have been a newly promoted Chuunin judging by his appearance."-Ankoku thought while commanding the ninja to walk as if he is a puppet. "Good, this will do."-he thought as he vanished with the body. 

"Did I miss anything?"-Ankoku asked as he appeared behind his teammates which were talking with C. 

"Ankoku, you shouldn't split off from your teammates like that. We are not in the Cloud Village anymore, you have to be more careful."-C scolded him lightly. "Anyway, I submitted the report that we have arrived. The exam will begin tomorrow at 4:00 afternoon in the Leaf's academy, room 301. All three of you need to be there, otherwise you won't be able to take the exam. Everything clear?"

"Yes."-they answered. 

Team 1 was told the same as them, but from Darui of course. And so the Cloud Genin teams peacefully went to sleep after dinner. Except for Toshiro, who was strangely getting nightmares, seeing blurry things that he couldn't quite understand, a familiar feeling yet an unknown story. He soon woke up from it, only image that he could clearly remember was the Hyuuga district in Konoha. 

"What was that dream... perhaps I have to see for myself..."-he thought as he left the room, trying not to wake up anyone.

He hurridly wondered the streets until he found the Hyuuga household, Toshiro landed on it's gates. 

"This is not good, if someone sees me I will be in trouble... but I have to know. I also remember... a chest, something important was hidden in it. But how will I infiltrate the mansion?"-he deeply thought until he simply arrived at the solution of using the Body Transformation jutsu. It was basic, but it would do the job. He turned himself into a mouse and sneakly entered the huge house.

"Which room? I remember there was a staircase... maybe a lower room? Basement, underground..."-he thought as he manouvered the mansion. "Why does it feel like I have been here before? It's as if... I grew up here. Everything seems familiar. If my instincts are correct, it must be here."-he then turned back to his human form and opened a hidden passage way in the ground, which revealed a staircase leading to a basement, lit up by torches.

"The chest... it's there."-he exclaimed as he saw the chest being the only thing in the room. "Now I just have to open-"-his thought got cut off from someone else entering the basement, from which he quickly turned into a spider and hid himself in the corner. 

"I am sure I heard something. I just couldn't see it, since the basement is sealed for most of us to see."-a Hyuuga explained to Hiashi. The clan had made sure that no Byakugan wielder can see through it, so that no kids would stumble upon it. 

"I don't know what you heard, there's nothing unusual here. Don't scare me like that in the middle of the night anymore!"-he scolded the young Hyuuga and they both headed back to the stairs. But then Hiashi felt something, turned his Byakugan on and noticed the spider. 

"Strange, no spiders should be able to snuck in this basement."-Hiashi thought and quickly threw a kunai, which killed the spider. "Let's go."-he then said to the youngster and left the basement. 

Toshiro then sighed from relief as he transformed back into his human form from a rock and the spider poofed into smoke. He had realised that he might be noticed so he changed to a stone but left a shape shifted clone just in case they noticed it disappeared. 

"Phew... this was close."-he thought as he went over to the chest, tried to use his Byakugan to see what was in it but to no avail, it was invisible even for his eyes due to the same fuinjutsu used for the basement. 

"I can't open it... shit. I should probably leave while I can. Why did I even think this was a good idea..."-Toshiro ranted as he left the basement carefully transformed as a rat. He quickly left the mansion and came back to his hotel room, where Ronin and Yumiko were sleeping. 

"I have to sleep for tomorrow... what was I thinking."-he slapped his forehead. Little did he know that he wasn't the only little hardworking bee awake that night. 

Around the time Toshiro broke into the Hyuuga's household Ankoku's puppet visited the report bureau where all mission reports were stored. 

"Hey, you there. What are you doing so late at night?"-a ninja asked him while stumbling on Ankoku's hypnotised Chuunin. "Hey, dude! You are not supposed to be here, you can get in trouble. Are you listening?"-the ninja then turned the Chuunin's head towards him and saw that his eyes were blank. "Shit, this is genjutsu. Kai!"-he released the genjutsu. 

"You, what's your name?"-the ninja asked. 

"I... my name's Yori. Where are we?"-the Chuunin asked while looking around. 

"You were under genjutsu, do you remember what happened?"

"Uh... no? I remember I was training and then... I am here."

"Shit, he can't even remember it. This is a high level genjutsu, perhaps mind manipulation to the extend it can remove memories. An invasion into the Village's mission reports. This is serious, I should report it to the ANBU."-he thought as he left the place and continued asking Yori questions. "But who will be able to use such genjutsu... none of the Genins should be able to, perhaps one of the Jonin leaders..."

Outside of the building Ankoku was smiling, the moon lightning him along the streets. 

"I didn't expect it to work either way, atleast I created some tension."-he thought while dropping on the street and returning back to the hotel. 

The next day both teams went to room 301 at 4 pm exactly, the room filled with dangerous looking ninjas from all over the ninja world. 

"Wow, all Genins look strong here, this will be a lot funnier than I thought."-Ronin exclaimed as he entered the room. 

"That one's the target, right?"-a Stone ninja pointed to Toshiro while asking his teammate. 

"Yes, that must be him... hehe."-they both chuckled. 

"This year's fish will be easy to catch."-Shigure smirked. 

"Don't underestimate your opponents, they are stronger than they look."-Sou commented while holding his hands in Namaste, using a sensing technique. "There's something weird about this mask..."-he thought. 

"How hard will it be for us?"-Shigure exclaimed. 

"Know your place, Shigure. You, Baiu und Midare are part of the lower scoring team. Don't force me to remind you why you are not part of our team..."-Kaito scolded him. 

"Kuh... this shithead! I will show him, just wait until we become Chuunin and you don't."-Shigure thought, frustrated while looking at the Genins around him. "Those Sand Genins, they will be an easy prey."-he thought. 

"Damn, those Leaf Genins are loud..."-Ronin thought as he watched the talkative gang discuss something. "Why can't we be more like them..."-he thought as he looked at his team and Team 6. 

"Yumiko, which team seems strong here."-Ankoku asked her. 

"Mhmm... those Sound Genins don't look so bad. The Mist and Stone look strong, none from the Leaf seem that dangerous except for that white eyed boy and the sunglasses one."-she responded.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto!! And none of you are gonna beat me!!!"-a blonde haired boy shouted across the room, attracting everyone's attention to him. 

"Is he mad? You have to be either really brave or dumb to say that..."-Yumiko thought. 

"That's the spirit."-Ronin smiled. 

"He's interesting..."-Toshiro side eyed him. 

"He just applied for his own death sentence."-Ankoku chuckled. 

Not much later the Sound Genins picked a fight with one of the Leaf Genins, swiftly making him vomit. The fight was interrupted by Morino Ibiki who arrived to the room with a whole platoon of Chuunins. His presence alone made most Genins in the room shiver in fear. He quickly scolded the Sound Genins and started explaining the rules of the first test, which turned out to be a paper exam out of all things. 

"Rule number one! Each one of you here starts with 10 points, the test has 10 questions, each worth a point. For each question you get wrong, we substract a point from you."-Ibiki explained as he wrote the rule on the blackboard. 

"Rule number two! This written test is still a team event. Passing or failing would be determined by the sum of points held by all three members of each cell. The object is for every cell to have as few deductions as possible. Rule number three! Each time we detect someone cheating during the exam, we substract two points from them."-The Special Ninja explained. 

"One more thing. If any member loses all 10 of his points during the exam, the entire squad will be disqualified!"-that last rule made everyone in the room afraid, perhaps even deviding the teams within in such a way that they no longer trusted each other. After all, your teammate might fail you at any point.

"You have one hour. Starting... NOW!"-Ibiki shouted and everyone panickedly started reading the questions, soon realising that all of them were way too hard for them to answer. 

"Damn it... what will I do? I can't answer any of them..."-Ronin thought stressed out.

"Something's not right... I can't answer a single one of these questions, neither can most Genins here. There's no way they would disqualify nearly all teams in the first exam. And what's up with that scoring system."-Yumiko thought as she finished reading the questions.

"Question 10 will be given 45 minutes after the test has begun."-Toshiro read. "What a strange question... why?"

"If Ronin doesn't answer atleast one question we are doomed... but neither can I answer them. What's going on. And these strange cheating rules. Why wouldn't they disqualify us on the spot if they caught us cheating? It's as if they are asking for us to cheat..."-she thought. 

"This is insane... I can't answer them without cheating, here I go..."-Toshiro thought as he activated his Byakugan and started watching everyone's answers. "Most are cheating too... this one. She seems confident with what she is writing."-he thought as he started copying the answers from a pink haired Leaf Genin. 

"The Chuunins have already started writing on their lists, they already found someone. The scoring system, the lenience to cheating, the hard answers. There's no doubt about it, this isn't a test to test our academic knowledge. This is a test to examine our intelligence gathering skills. Ronin... please figure it out!"-she thought as she stared at Ronin, who had completely lost all hope of completing the test. 

"I will fail everyone, I will fail Yumiko, Toshiro, Darui, I will fail the village... what should I do..."-he started banging his head on the desk. 

"About time we start cheating too..."-a Stone Genin thought as he waved the hand seals under his desk. "Fire Style: Temperature Sensing"-this ability allowed him to sense in detail everything that was going on in the room according to how temperature changed, every move, every breathe, every sweat. 

"Sensing Technique: Devine Sense"-the Mist Genin-Sou, clapped his hands in a Namaste and started cheating too. 

"That guy... he seems confident."-Ankoku thought as he stared at the Genin sitting next to him. "Excuse me, but I will borrow your mind for a moment."-he put the Genin in genjutsu and started copying his test answers.

"Magnet Release: Magnetic Field"-Yumiko waved the hand seals under her desk and applied a rather weak magnetic field arround the room, allowing her to feel how people moved their pencils. 

A kunai was then thrown at a Leaf Genin's test, the Chuunin disqualifying him for cheating. One after another teams started getting disqualified.

"Shit, they caught so many. I have no chance of cheating, none of my abilities can help with that. I will fail everyone if I don't do anything quickly... my only chance is that last question. If I can answer that, we can all pass, even if I only got 1 point. Haha... this is such a gambit, I am so hopeless."-he chuckled while a sweat broke down his forehead. 

More teams started getting disqualified, thirteen to be exact. The Genins continued to find ways to cheat though, wether it will be with sand manipulation or bugs, everyone tried to pass the test. 

"45 minutes have passed, get ready for the 10th question!"-Ibiki announced. "And before we get to the question itself... I'm adding one more rule."

"You've got to be kidding me..."-Ronin thought. 

"Let me explain, this rule is absolute. You must choose wether to accept or reject this tenth question."-the Special Jonin said. 

"Choose? What happens if someone doesn't accept the question!?"-Temari shouted. 

"If you reject the question and don't even try to answer it, you'll lose all of your points and fail. And both of your teammates will fail as well. If you decide to take the question and you get it wrong, you will never be allowed to take the exam again, ever."-this new rule shocked every Genin in the room, some questioning the legitemacy of such a question, since some Genins have taken the exam multiple times. 

"That's just your rotten luck, I wasn't making the rules last year. I am now."-Ibiki answered, making the entire room cursing him in their thoughts. Teams started giving up one after another, it wasn't worth the gamble for most. 

"If I fail this... Toshiro and Yumiko will never become Chuunins. I can't let that happen, Yumiko depends on becoming a Chuunin for her clan, Toshiro has promised to serve our village. I can't... I can't fail them."-Ronin shakingly started raising his hand, but before he could the blond haired Leaf Genin raised his and slammed it on the desk. 

"Never underestimate me!!! I don't quit and I won't run!!! I'll accept your stupid question, even if I risk staying a Genin forever. I'll still become the Hokage, even if I can only make it by pure stubbornness, I don't care!!! I'm not afraid of you!"-Naruto pointed to Ibiki. 

"That ninja... that's the same guy who shouted at everyone earlier. He's right, I won't let a dumb question stop us, what swordsman am I if I can't even be brave enough to risk it all?"-Ronin lowered his hand as he smiled at the Leaf kid, who definetely left a good impression on him. 

"He's crazy..."-Yumiko thought. 

"I knew he was interesting, but to shout it out like that? You don't see such people often."-Toshiro smiled. 

"That persistence will kill him one day..."-Ankoku looked at Ibiki, who started at Naruto smiling alongside all the other Genins who decided to stay. 

"There's no point in dragging this out. Thanks to that kid, no one else will leave. He encouraged them all in no time..."-Ibiki thought as he looked around the room. "No need for hiding around the bush, everyone who's still here, you've just passed the test!"-Ibiki announced, leaving everyone in the room gasping from the suprise. 

"What do you mean we passed? What about the 10th question?"-Yumiko asked. 

"There's no 10th question, beyond the whole accept or reject thing."-Ibiki chuckled. "As for the questions in the test, they are all above your level. The purpose was to test your espionage skills by cheating. We planted two Chuunins in the room who already knew the answers, so you could cheat from them."

"Two Chuunins with the answers? One of them must be that pink haired girl I stole the answers from..."-Toshiro thought while looking at Sakura, but to his suprise two others stood up, revealing that she is just an ordinary Genin. 

"Congratulations to everyone fo-"-Ibiki tried to say but got cut from a woman storming in the room through the window. 

"None of you are in any position to celebrate! I am the second chief examination officer. Mitarashi Anko! Everyone, follow me!"-she shouted while raising her fist. 

"Is everyone in this village insane?"-Yumiko thought as everyone in the room left for their next exam. 

"That girl..."-Toshiro thought as he passed through the Leaf's Team 7, the pink haired girl had done the exam perfectly without cheating, something that Toshiro had thought was impossible. And that blond haired kid was braver than the entire room combined. "They seem dangerous... we should avoid them."

"That was definetely a weird exam, do y'all think the next one will be as unconventional as the last one?"-Ronin asked as they followed Anko. 

"She doesn't seem like the type to give an easy exam."-Yumiko responded, seeing as she was rather hot-headed. 

"We've finally arrived, this is the arena for the second exam: training ground 44. Also known as... the forest of death."-Anko announced in front of the Genins. "You will soon find out why they call it the forest of death."-she smirked.

"Like that's really gonna scare us. You're trying to psyche us out and I'm not gonna fall for it!"-Naruto shouted. 

"Oh, really? You're pretty cocky, huh?"-she smiled creepily and threw a kunai at him, which scratched his face, blood beginning to drip down. 

"Heh. Your kind are always the first to go."-she appeared behind him and grabbed Naruto, she started licking his blood, much to his horror. 

"Your kunai, I believe you dropped it."-an even creepier Genin from the Hidden Grass village handed it to her from behind, holding it with her tounge. 

"Gee, thanks."-Anko responded. 

"What's wrong with our examiner? And that other Genin... they're seriously giving me the creeps."-Ronin exclaimed. 

"Before we start the second exam, there's something I have to hand out. They're consent forms, everyone needs to sign them. By signing them you agree on the terms that any deaths that occur during the exam are not my responsibility."-she said cheerfully, while handing them to everyone. "Everyone needs to submit them at that hut behind me."

"So, what's the test? All of you will need to survive in the forest for 5 days, you are allowed to use all sorts of ninja arts. Each team will also be given a scroll, there are two different types. Heaven and Earth, you will need both if you want to pass. So try to hold onto yours and take the enemy's scroll. You have to deliver both scrolls within five days to the tower in the centre of the forest, where the tower is. All three need to get to the tower, if only 2 or less arrive there, you won't pass. The entire team has to make it."-she explained. 

"There are some other rules as well. You are not allowed to leave the forest, or you will be disqualified. Under no circumstances are you allowed to open the scrolls until you make it to the tower. Now that everything's explained, go sign your forms and give them to the hut, where you will be given the scroll."

"The hut is concealed by a black curtain so we can't see what scroll each team gets. Toshiro... could you... do the thing?"-Yumiko shouldered him slighlty. 

"That last test really taught you to cheat... wait I will write them down."-so he started writing each team's scroll. "Team 6's scroll is heaven, ours is earth. We won't need to fight them after all... ok it's complete."-he then handed it to Yumiko, who put it in her pocket. 

"Everyone, go to your gate! Your Chuunin will let you in when the signal goes off. Understood?"-Anko announced, which made all of the Genins go to their locations hurridly. "Start!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I honestly don't know why it took me so long to post again. I was just busy, I guess. I spent most of my time reading the Black Clover manga, it was really fun. I am at chapter 215 right now, it's so much fun. It definetely made me want to write more. It's a really fun story, I reccomend it. I am rather new to manga/anime, but it's been so much fun reading them, it even made me want to write. I honestly feel sorry for those who haven't tried it so far, although I haven't read that much as well. 
> 
> Either way, I have the Chuunin exams part of the story rather figured out already, I just need to write it down. I will try to make the fights as different as possible, so expect different matchups in the final test/preliminaries.


End file.
